On 31 August 2023, ACJR hosted a webinar on Sub-national governance, law enforcement and oversight in Five African countries. The webinar highlighted key issues relating to sub-national law enforcement in Ghana, Kenya,...

Civil society group, Prisons Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), has urged federal and state legislatures to hasten the amendment of criminal laws and decriminalisation and declassification of minor and petty...

People convicted of petty offences like defamation and drunken misconduct in public may soon get away with community service as a form of punishment, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah...

The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled in favor of eliminating the state's cash bail system, ending bail as a condition of pretrial release. In a 5-2 ruling Tuesday, the state's highest court...

PRAWA: The first review workshop for a Model State Law on Correctional Service was held on the 7th of August at Rockview Hotel by PRAWA and other stakeholders. The proposed...

SALC: Country’s Council of Churches applauded 2019 decriminalization ruling. Botswana is considered a secular state and all people have equal access to religious organizations and institutions. There are three Christian...

Amnesty International: The Lebanese authorities must immediately halt all prosecutions of journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and others who are critical of state officials, Amnesty International today, as the organization launches #MyOpinionIsNotaCrime,...

Invisible People: Politicians are using the word ‘Unsanctioned’ in homeless legislation, suggesting Sanctioned Encampments Will Become the Norm. For time immemorial, when politicians talk about homelessness, they complain about homeless encampments. Their...

Reposted from the Guardian: In at least 17 countries, suicide remains a criminal offence – a ‘huge barrier’ to mental health care. As Ghana becomes one of four countries to...

In many countries persons experiencing homelessness, living in poverty or situation of vulnerability continue to be disproportionately subjected to fines, deportation, arbitrary arrest, or detention for petty offences or conduct...

Invisible People: The 9th Circuit’s ruling that cities can’t force unhoused people off the streets if they don’t have adequate shelter options survived a legal challenge by petitioners from Grants...

Amnesty International: On 29 October 2020, pro-democracy protesters gathered around Bangkok’s Silom Road to call for political reforms. As part of the demonstration, protestors held the ‘People’s Runway’, a mock...

Penal Reform International: A resolution tabled by Canada was adopted at the Human Rights Council last week on ‘Accelerating efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls:...

Amnesty International: Responding to the news that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed into law the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Bill, 2022, commonly referred to as the “Patriotic Bill”,...

An Open Letter to the organisers of Women Deliver and the Generation Equality Forum calling for all High-Level Forums on women’s rights to be inclusive of all women, particularly criminalised, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated Women. The letter,...

Amnesty International: Following the banning of a number of demonstrations protesting police violence after the unlawful killing of 17-year-old Nahel M by a police officer, Amnesty International is calling for...

Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) notes that the Uganda Law Revision (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2023, has repealed some of the rogue and vagabond, sedition, and false news offences in its...

SALC: Botswana’s Parliament intends to table a number of bills in the current session, one of which seeks to repeal section 164 of the Penal Code. On 29 November 2021,...

The Eswatini Supreme Court has controversially reinstated the state’s appeal against a liberal landmark high court judgment passed in 2016. After a lapse of six years, Eswatini’s Supreme Court has...

Two months before presidential and parliamentary elections on 23 August, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urges Zimbabwe to abandon a proposed “sovereignty and national interest” law that poses a major threat to journalism....

On 28 June 2023, ACJR in collaboration with Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) hosted a webinar on The Right to Public Spaces and Informal Work: Key considerations for Law...

Prison Insider: Incarceration is the response that States often impose on unwanted behaviours. In many countries, criminal law and prison are used to target those who have been excluded, who...

Delegates at the recent Mental Health Conference in South Africa pushed for the decriminalisation of suicide. A media coverage from Kenya highlights the issues and challenges in the decriminalisaton of...

PRI: Pre-trial detention contributes significantly to prison overcrowding and causes a range of harms to individuals, their familes, and society. But what is driving its use? In this blog, Madhurima Dhanuka from...

At the UN General Assembly High-Level Debate on Equal Access to Justice For All on June 15th, 2023, Richard Arbeiter, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the United...

A majority of countries in Africa¹ have some type of “vagrancy laws”, meaning laws which consider people that are or are perceived to be poor, homeless or unemployed as criminals. Examples...

Mr X is a Congolese man who was living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In early June 2006, he lost his passport. He went to the Tanzanian police to register...

Some 20 years ago, Ibrahim Kingori Njoki was involved in a brawl. He was later convicted of creating a disturbance, contrary to Section 95(1) of the Penal Code. The law...

Hope Behind Bars Africa has said that most awaiting trail inmates in Nigeria have been languishing in our Custodial facilities for petty crimes like loitering or hawking. The human rights...

The outrage caused by the jailing of a mother for ending her pregnancy after the legal limit should spark a wider rethink of archaic legislation. The case of a mother...

On May 22-26, members of the Campaign attended the 32nd session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ), which is the principal policymaking body of the United...

SALC: Mbabane, Eswatini: 16 June 2023 – Today, a five-panel bench of the Supreme Court of Eswatini passed a judgement setting aside the decision by the High Court that dismissed the...

The murder of prominent human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko and the subsequent admission by the government that it hired ‘security experts’ to deal with pro-democracy activists have created a state...

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), in an amicus curiae brief submitted today, has requested the East Jakarta District Court to give effect to Indonesia’s international legal obligations concerning freedom...

The offence of being ‘rogue and vagabond’ saw people detained for how they looked. Now it’s gone, but there’s more to do. On 5 December, we at the Human Rights...

SALC & CHREAA: On 5 June 2023, the High Court of Malawi granted leave for judicial review to challenge the Lilongwe by-laws evicting informal traders from plying their trade on...

It's clear we're not going to achieve decrim in 2024" say activist The draft decriminalisation of sex work bill will be revised. The Department of Justice was advised that the...

CJ-PAP: The systemic oppression of marginalised communities by the criminal justice system is poorly understood and rarely questioned. Here’s how this is changing. In 1871, the British colonial government introduced...

Data also shows black defendants more likely to be held in prison – yet more likely to be acquitted Black defendants spend on average more than 70% longer in prison...

States around the world should repeal discriminatory and archaic laws that reproduce historical inequalities and patterns of oppression. In 2018, Theresa May, then UK prime minister, expressed “deep regret” for Britain’s colonial...

SALC: On 31 May 2023, 28 men were arrested in Harare CBD under the country’s vagrancy laws. These arrests raise the question of why vagrancy laws still exist and are...

Addis Ababa, 18 May 2023: The African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) organized the AUC-NANHRI Policy Dialogue on the State of...

Responding to the Hong Kong government’s bid to seek a court order to prohibit people from singing, broadcasting or distributing the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong”, the Head of...

SALC: SALC is alarmed by the passing of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Bill, also known as the “Patriotic Bill”, by the lower house of Zimbabwe’s parliament, which...

Fines & Fees Justice Center: The United States’ overreliance on legal fees and fines is directly impacting one in three American families, according to a new survey just released from...

Demonstrations broke out in Senegal after a court sentenced opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison. He was convicted of “corrupting the youth” but cleared of rape. The...

Amnesty International: Responding to the arrests of four people for “seditious intention and disorderly conduct” in Hong Kong ahead of the 34th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown, Amnesty International’s interim...

SALC: In the past several months, South Africa’s foreign policy has been in the spotlight for essential and existential reasons that significantly impact geopolitics and the continent’s stability.  The foreign...

Amnesty International: The launch of the Malalamishi app by the Director of the Office of Public Prosecutions this week offers another glimmer of hope for all criminal suspects and convicts...

A number of organizations sent a letter to Malaysia’s Home Affairs Minister and Minister of Law urging that the government repeal the Sedition Act, in advance of the hearing of...