On 26 June 2020, the UN Anti-Torture Mechanisms issued a statement on how COVID-19 exacerbates the risk of ill-treatment and torture worldwide. The statement notes that excessive force to enforce...

The Global Fund Sex workers in Africa are among the communities suffering the most due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as lockdowns and police crackdowns leave millions without income. Sex workers...

The Daily Nation By Grace Ngenye When I read the Daily Nation article (June 17, 2020) on the Committee on Criminal Justice Reforms (NCCJR), my first reaction was gratitude for...

Times Live A law that criminalises children who possess or use cannabis has been declared unconstitutional by a Johannesburg high court judge. Judge Ingrid Opperman said the way children were...

On 14 July 2020, the Malawi Prison Service registered its first COVID-19 case at Mzimba Prison through a prisoner. On the same day, an inmate also tested positive for the...

The African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF) welcomes the opportunity to make this submission to the Special Rapporteur on Prisons, Conditions of Detention and Policing in Africa, and we do...

A Nigerian court has voided the arrest of commercial sex workers in Abuja by law enforcement officials. The Abuja Federal High Court presided over by Justice Binta Nyako on Wednesday declared that...

By: WIEGO Date: February 2020 Through photography and text, this e-book offers an in-depth look at the important role street vendors play in cities, the challenges they face, and the solutions...

Although there is no law against prostitution in Malawi, sex workers routinely face abuse and wrongful arrest by police who give in to social stigma and misunderstand the law, according...

21 Civil society organizations have formed the Uganda Coalition to decriminalize petty offences. The coalition was formed at a 2-day retreat convened by the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum...

H.E the President of the Republic of Uganda has directed that no person should be arrested for the crime of "idle and disorderly". The President has also directed that all those...

Today the petition challenging the constitutionality of Section 168 (1) (c) and (d), of Uganda's Penal Code Act, which creates the offence of 'being rogue and vagabond,' Francis Tumwesige Vs...

By ERIC WAINAINA Weeks ago as Mr Kamau Mburu and other people were walking home shortly past 11 pm, they were rounded up in Kirigiti and taken to Kiambu Police...

By Sarah Nyakio Seven out of 10 inmates in the country are petty offenders with the lowest case determination rates, the Annual Criminal Justice Conference was told on Tuesday, May...

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) will continue to highlight and push reforms to address alternative measures that may mitigate the excessive use of pre-trial detention. Executive Secretary of NHRC,...

Enter a prison and brace yourself for the harsh experience of inmates imprisoned in colonial times. Not much has changed since the 1900s in terms of facilities and, many say,...

Mombasa senator Mohammed Faki has decried the increasing number of petty offenders congesting Kenyan prisons. Speaking in Mombasa Friday during the reopening of the Mombasa Court of Appeal, Senator Faki...

Mr Nelson Basubinin Duut, Director of Prisons Technical and Services, on Thursday suggested that Prison overcrowding could be addressed by decriminalizing petty offences in Ghana. He said studies on the...

    Recently, key criminal justice players in Kenya, led by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP), pitched a tent in Lamu County for a service week....

Mr Edmund Amarkwei Foley, a human rights activist, has urged the Government to set national targets to reduce the number of people in jail. He noted that the Nsawam Prison,...

An advocacy group, Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action, has called on the governments of Lagos, Abia, Enugu and Kano states as well as the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to review...

In May 2015, the Legal Resources Foundation Trust and the National Council on the Administration of Justice commissioned an audit into the criminal justice system in Kenya, with a specific...

Judiciary report is raising serious concerns over the number of cases being overturned on appeal, and the low number of suspects charged after arrests. The report, Status of the Judiciary...

The High Court has ordered six police officers to pay Sh4 million to a lawyer they had arrested and detained illegally. The officers will also pay Sh3.8 million to 19...

South Africa’s move towards decriminalisation aligns with the developmental approach to crime and violence. Speaking at the launch of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson...

A number of convicts have walked to freedom after successfully appealing against being imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. The wheels of criminal justice in Kenya rotate very slowly,...

Since Aug. 21, prisoners across the United States have been on one of the largest prison strikes the nation has seen in years. They have several demands, but at the...

The concrete floor of a prison cell crawls with bodies as detainees labour to draw their limbs closer to their torsos. The little light illuminating this daily custom, an exercise...

The criminal justice system in many African countries is characterized by widespread criminalization and punishment of petty offenses through arbitrary arrests which provides a basis for the violation of human rights of...

In March 2015, the applicant was arrested by police whilst on his way to the market where he works as a street vendor. He was charged with the offence of...

Almost three-quarters of criminal cases in Nairobi and Narok counties are traffic violations, shows report The high number of traffic cases is disrupting the criminal justice system yet there is...

The government has formed a task force to oversee the implementation of rules to enforce instant fines for traffic offences following a court order that gave approval. Interior Cabinet Secretary...

Many hawkers in Kenya, from anecdotal evidence, have been women. They educate, feed, shelter and clothe their children with the income from what they knew best and how they knew...

India’s top court struck down a colonial-era law that made homosexual acts punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a landmark victory for gay rights in the world’s largest...

Many hawkers in Kenya, from anecdotal evidence, have been women. They educate, feed, shelter and clothe their children with the income from what they knew best and how they knew...

New Delhi, September 9-- The unanimous Indian Supreme Court judgment which ended the ban on consensual gay sex in private is a landmark verdict which is a “call to action” for...

By Dorothy Otieno  Almost three-quarters of criminal cases in Nairobi and Narok counties are traffic violations, shows report The high number of traffic cases is disrupting the criminal justice system...

Almost half of the 140 inmates in Warren County Jail have been prescribed psychotropic drugs, and more than half are receiving mental health treatment. It would be as accurate to...