With the increasing number of inmates in Ghana’s prisons, crime prevention organization Crime Check Foundation (CCF) has partnered with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) to advocate the annulment of vagrancy laws. The project dubbed “Decriminalizing Vagrancy Laws Advocacy Project” seeks to decriminalize poverty. A vagrant is a person...
Crime Check Foundation & OSIWA partner on Decriminalizing Vagrancy Laws and Advocacy (DVLA) project
The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) has extended funding support to Crime Check Foundation (CCF) in a collective quest to end laws, which criminalize the status of individuals as being poor, homeless, as opposed to specific wrongful acts. This is under a partnership titled ‘Decriminalizing Vagrancy Laws and...
African Court’s Landmark Opinion Could Reduce Criminalization of Poverty, Prison Overcrowding
All Africa Open Society Foundations (New York)'s Press Release 4 December 2020 Today, a continental court in Africa delivered a landmark opinion on colonial era vagrancy laws, which criminalize activities such as loitering, public indecency, and begging. The judgement has the potential to help reshape criminal justice policy and practice...