In overcrowded prisons running at 163% capacity, women sleep on mattresses while dealing with untreated trauma from domestic violence, sexual abuse, and grief.
Malawi High Court to Determine Constitutionality of Police Sweeping Exercises
21 June 2021, Blantyre – Today, Judge Zione Ntaba heard the case of State v Officer in Charge, Kasungu Police Station and Inspector General of Police, Ex Parte Banda and 2 Others, which challenged arbitrary arrest practices, The Applicants raised the issue of the unreasonableness of the arrest, taking into...
Africa: a Regional Campaign to Decriminalise Petty Offences
In March 2015, a street vendor named Mayeso Gwanda was arrested on his way to work in Malawi for being a ‘rogue and vagabond’. He was one of thousands of people a day across Africa to be affected by the enforcement of petty offences – archaic, colonial-era laws that are...
Prioritise non-custodial sentencing
Speakers at a roundtable discussion on sentencing in the country’s Criminal Justice System have called on judges to prioritise the option of non-custodial sentencing that exist under the 1992 Constitution rather than giving custodial sentences to convicts especially, petty offenders. They have also called on government to expedite action to...
KENYA:Poverty is Not a Crime: Kisumu Residents Lament Harassment on Petty Offences
International Commission of Jurists Kenyan Chapter (ICJ Kenya) extended their decriminalization and re-classification of petty offences campaign to Kisumu’s Ofafa Hall on March 17th 2018. The campaign compliments ICJ Kenya’s concerted efforts to push for the decriminalization and re-classification of petty offences. The campaign was executed as a forum discussion...