From the Daily Times, Malawi: Persons with disabilities in Malawi continue to face harsh realities on the streets. This is happening as the Constitutional Court spends eight years on a case in which they are challenging Section 180 (b) of the Penal Code. The section in question criminalises begging. The...

Various human rights organisations came together to sound the alarm on the inadequacies of the recent UN Convention Againct Cybercrime. The joint statement begins with: "We, the undersigned organizations, remain deeply concerned that the UN Convention Against Cybercrime (UNCC) will facilitate human rights abuses across borders. As some states head...

On 1–2 September 2025, the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF), the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria (CHR), and the Dullah Omar Institute (DOI) (the Amici Applicants) represented by Lawyers for Human Rights, will appear  before the High Court of South Africa, Western Cape Division, seeking consent to be admitted as amici...

OSF: Last June, Malaysian authorities burned the homes and boats of members of the Bajau Laut, an indigenous community in Malaysian Borneo whose livelihoods are inextricably linked to the sea. This destruction left families without shelter, and with few ways to support themselves. After videos of the displacement went viral, the Malaysian government...

Multiple custodial killings in Guna District, Central India, have become disturbingly normalised, prompting the Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project (CPA Project) to investigate local policing patterns. Their report, "Everyday Policing in Guna, Madhya Pradesh," analysed 20,705 arrest records from 2019 to 2024 across 18 police stations using publicly available...

SALC: As outlined in international human rights treaties and the constitutions of most African countries, freedom of expression is a fundamental right. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirm that every individual has the right to hold opinions and to impart...

LONDON, 29 July 2025 – Women Beyond Walls, the podcast exploring the human stories behind women’s incarceration, today launches its second season with the powerful story of Teresa Njoroge — a mother, banker, and now justice advocate, whose wrongful imprisonment in Kenya transformed her life and mission.  Hosted by human...

The Global Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status releases short explainer video about the recent case in Malawi that declared criminal defamation as unconsitutional. The case was supported by campaign members, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, under the umbrella of the Campaign.

SALC: On 16 July 2025, the High Court of Malawi delivered a landmark judgment in a Constitutional case, declaring Section 200 of the Penal Code, which criminalises defamation, unconstitutional. The claimant argued that the provision violated his right to freedom of expression, protected under Section 35 of the Constitution, and...

The Caribbean Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) proudly announces the release of Breaking the Chains: The Fight for Justice Beyond Colonial Laws, a bold and transformative publication aimed at catalysing legal reform and promoting human dignity across the Caribbean. This limited edition work is more than a book, it is...

GENEVA (17 June 2025) – UN experts* today welcomed a decision by the United Kingdom to repeal the Vagrancy Act, a law that has long criminalised homelessness and rough sleeping in England and Wales, by Spring 2026.  “This is a long overdue, highly commendable step,” the experts said. “The decision...

Rough sleeping will be decriminalised next year under government plans to scrap a 200-year-old law. Ministers are planning to scrap the Vagrancy Act, which outlaws rough sleeping in England and Wales. The law was introduced in 1824 to deal with rising homelessness, but Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has called...

On Tuesday 25 March, the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago allowed the appeal of the Attorney General in the case of Jason Jones v. Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago (2018), thereby overturning the 2018 High Court ruling that had decriminalised consensual same-sex sexual activity. The 2018 ruling found...

Over 740,000 women and girls are held in prison worldwide. Women continue to make up a minority of the global prison population at 7%. However, women’s incarceration is growing at a faster rate than men, up 60% since 2000 compared to 22% for men. Around 19,000 children are living in...

Poverty, abuse and discriminatory laws are driving a huge rise in the number of women in prison globally, according to a new report [supported by the Global Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status]. With the rise of the far right and an international backlash against women’s rights, the research said...

In November 2023, Lawyers Alert (LA) in collaboration with the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) provided critical legal and technical support to homeless individuals and informal traders whose shanties were demolished by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. This initiative was part of a broader campaign for...

Amnesty International, APCOF and Suaram organized this two-day workshop in Bangkok to strengthen alliances, including within the Campaign, and counter the rising criminalization of protesters and human rights defenders. The workshop was part of a year-long project conducted with a sub-grant from the Campaign. The event was attended by 18...

Prison Insider: People in prison across the world are among the most marginalised part of the population. Many have physical or mental health problems and experience difficulties relating to addictive behaviour, cut ties, poverty or periods of homelessness. Upon their release, they are often in precarious situations and stigmatised and...

Lawyers Alert: The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed 12 March for judgment in suit seeking to stop Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wike, and the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) from arresting and prosecuting Commercial Sex Workers (CSWs) in Abuja. The judge, James Omotosho, fixed the date on Monday,...

A two-day convening on "Decriminalizing Poverty and Status" took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on January 24-25, bringing together diverse voices from across South Asia to discuss the discrimination and marginalisation of social groups within and by the legal system. Under the umbrella of the Global Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty...

Documenta: On March 28, 2023, Documenta filed an Amparo lawsuit challenging the conventionality of a provision in the Mexico City Penal Code that allows for persons with disabilities to be incarcerated and subject to involuntary treatment in the context of criminal procedures. The provision, which allows for a security measure...

Campaign members supported recent efforts to decriminalise attempted suicide in Kenya. Watch the short explainer video about this ruling:

Jennifer Smith, ILF: Over the past year, the ILF has been working with the Campaign to Decriminalize Poverty and Status, civil society organizations, and independent experts around the world to elevate this important expert meeting as an opportunity to meaningful advance Equal Access to Justice for all and to advocate...

In December of 2024, APCOF, Freedoms Collective Trust and the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights presented a paper titled “Decriminalising public space governance: the role of the police” at the First African Regional Conference on Law Enforcement and Public Health. The conference took place at the University of Pretoria, and...

ICJ-Kenya: Nairobi, KENYA – This past week, High Court Judge, Justice Lawrence Mugambi declared Section 226 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes attempted Suicide unconstitutional. The judgment continues to be hailed as a watershed moment in Kenya’s mental health journey, laying a new foundation where, persons suffering from mental illnesses...

Mara Kardas-Nelson writes for The Nation: Decades after independence, colonial-era laws have created a mass-incarceration crisis in Sierra Leone as poor citizens are thrown into prison for the smallest offenses. A few summers ago, I met a young man in a prison in the center of Sierra Leone. The man...

FFJC: Des Moines, Iowa — Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court allowed the ACLU of Iowa, the Fines and Fees Justice Center, and Public Justice to file an amicus brief in State of Iowa v. Ronald Pagliai (PAG-lee-eye), a case currently before the Court. The amicus brief argues that Iowa courts may not...

SALC: Lilongwe, Malawi – On 17 December 20204, the Malawi High Court will consider a challenge to the offence of criminal defamation under section 200 of the Penal Code. This challenge, presented before a Constitutional Court, aims to align Malawi’s Penal Code with its constitutional and international obligations to protect the...

SALC: Despite operating in a country where prostitution is not a crime, Malawian sex workers continue to face rampant abuse and exploitation. What is a crime is earning proceeds out of prostitution. Sadly, sex workers’ cries for help are often met with intimidation, scorn and, worse still, violence. For 36-year-old...

Stricter Penalties for Theft and Drug Offenses Target Vulnerable Populations, Worsening Homelessness and Addiction Invisible People: Last September, Donald Trump promised that, if reelected, “We will immediately stop all of the pillaging and theft. Very simply: If you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are...

https://youtu.be/Pp6VG7N1xRU?feature=shared Across the world and in Africa, women make up the majority of workers in the informal economy – mostly because of limited education, high levels of unemployment, inequality and poverty. Despite their significant contribution to socio-economic development, they are not always acknowledged as workers with rights. Instead, the unregulated...

Prison Insider: On Saturday 29 June 2024, Prison Insider hosted a workshop on the human and social cost of prison in Haiti, Tunisia, Morocco, and France, as part of Concertina, Coming together to explore imprisonment (Rencontres estivales autour des enfermements). Exploring the links between poverty and prison were: Arnaud Dandoy: Head...

AdvocAid: Freetown, 7 November 2024: In a landmark judgment, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice has ruled in favour of AdvocAid in a case filed against the Republic of Sierra Leone. The case challenged Sierra Leone’s discriminatory loitering laws, which AdvocAid argued unjustly targets...

Invisible People: Why transgender individuals face higher risks of homelessness and how discrimination contributes to the growing crisis A growing number of gender nonconforming and transgender people are experiencing homelessness in the U.S., a trend that seems baffling because public polling indicates LGBTQ+ individuals are more socially accepted than ever before. Over...

ICwS: The Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS) and its partners, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Commonwealth Secretariat  launched a new Practitioner’s Guide on the decriminalisation of poverty and status at a packed side event at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) Samoa 2024. This Practitioners’ Guide addresses the global, growing trend towards...

ICwS: On 9 and 10 September 2024, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS) and its partners, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec), held an Asia and Caribbean regional consultation on a human rights-based approach to criminal law with stakeholders in Bangkok, Thailand focussed on the decriminalisation of poverty...

ICJ-Kenya: NAIROBI, Kenya – The Africa Litigation Surgery Conference kicked off in earnest with delegates from across the continent converging in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. Under the theme, pushing back against authoritarian regimes, the conference provides a unique and enlightening experience on how Public Interest Litigation (PIL) can be used to...

Amnesty International: Responding to reports of the arrest and detention of student leaders, protest participants and members of opposition parties following the quota-reform protests, with over 9000 arrests over the weekend in Bangladesh, Smriti Singh, Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International, said: “The mass arrest and arbitrary detention...

SALC: 30 July 2024, Blantyre – Yesterday,  the Mzuzu High Court ordered that 30 days should be the reasonable time envisaged under the Immigration Act within which deportation of undocumented immigrants ought to be effected by the State, remarking that “in the current constitutional dispensation we can’t have people detained indefinitely, be it...

Joint Statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima As courts and parliaments in a number of countries are in the midst of considering the legal framework around the rights of LGBTQ+ people, we highlight that punitive laws against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people violate human rights and...

Invisible People: San Francisco officials can begin conducting homeless sweeps again after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals partially withdrew a preliminary injunction against the city that had been in place since 2023. The court’s decision comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. Grants Pass, in which the...

SALC & CHREAA: Although the Constitution of Malawi provides for the protection of all children including migrant children, the continuous detention of these migrant minors has become a cause of concern which requires attention from authorities and policy makers. Detaining migrant children is not only illegal and unconstitutional, but it...

SALC & CHREAA: Despite being a constitutional democracy, local authorities in Malawi continue to perpetuate the colonial legacy by criminalising poverty and inequality through the incessant administration of draconian colonial pieces of legislation and bylaws which militate against fundamental rights of marginalised persons. In 2022, the Blantyre City Council indicated...

NHLC: In a profoundly disappointing ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court today decided that the US Constitution does not protect homeless people against cruel and unusual punishment, even when they have no choice to sleep in public using things like blankets or pillows.  Arresting or fining people for trying to survive...

GENEVA (25 June 2024) – UN human rights experts have called on governments to scrap “cruel and counterproductive” laws that are leading to people living in homelessness and poverty being arrested, fined or subjected to degrading punishment for carrying out activities in public that are vital for their survival. A new study published by...

SALC: Freedom of expression, a fundamental right crucial for open dialogue, critical thinking, and societal progress, is under threat in Africa due to outdated and ambiguous legal frameworks. Citizens, journalists, civil society, human rights defenders and activists are constantly charged with a variety of insult, sedition, subversive, anti-terrorism and defamation...

SALC: In the last year, we have seen Parliaments in Africa enact laws that contradict court rulings in Namibia and Kenya. In Uganda, and Ghana, new laws go as far as to criminalising anyone who advocates for LGBTQI+ rights. You may be wondering why Parliamentarians elected by the people passed these scary and draconian legislations;...

ICwS & ICJ: On 5 and 6 June 2024, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS) and its partners, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec), held an Africa regional consultation on a human rights-based approach to criminal law with stakeholders in Nairobi, Kenya. The consultation took place as...

ILF: Around the world, criminal justice systems disproportionately penalize people who are poor, including through fines and fees. On May 15, 2024 on the sidelines of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the ILF hosted an event exploring the criminalization of poverty. Moderated by the ILF’s Leah...

SALC: Over the past five years, the highest courts in Namibia and Botswana have made significant decisions in favour of minority groups’ human rights through favourable judgements and court orders. However, the implementation of these orders related to the rights of LGBTQI+ in Botswana and Namibia has not been satisfactory...