Updates Archives
Scrap Vagrancy Laws – Advocates Appeal
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
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
Decriminalising and declassifying petty offences in Tunisian legislation
Recently, the Organization Against Torture in Tunisia organised an experts seminar, as part of this campaign’s activities. The seminar was held in a hotel in
Statement in response to the activity report of the Special Rapporteur on Prisons, Conditions of Detention and Policing in Africa (Item 7)
68th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 14 April – 4 May 2021 Dear Hon. Chairperson, Hon. Commissioners, all protocols
Eleven people who are homeless go to court to challenge Cape Town’s discriminatory by-laws
Last week eleven people experiencing homlessness launched applications in both the Western Cape High Court and the Equality Court (South Africa) challenging the constitutionality and
Petty Offences Newsletter: November 2020 to February 2021 Activities
The quarterly digest of petty offences campaign activities for November 2020 to February 2021 is in three languages, English, Portuguese and French.
Imprisoned under the Cover of COVID
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism25 November 2020 Edward was lying on his bed when he heard shouting and banging. Last night had been fun: he’d
Documentary on Zambia prisons
The Legal Resources Foundation, Southern Africa Litigation Centre, Prisoners Reintergration and Empowerment Organisation and Decisive Minds put together a documentary on prison conditions in Zambia
Rwanda Should Stop Locking Up the Poor
Reliefweb 21 December 2020 African Court Decision Condemns Practice The African Court on Human and People’s Rights has held that states’ laws enabling the detention
COVID-19 Rules Haunt the Poor
The NationBy James Chavula27 January 2021 In 2017, a vendor moved the Constitutional Court to scrape a colonial law made by Britain in 1924 that
Decriminalization of Petty Offences in Morocco towards Restorative Justice
As part of the African campaign to decriminalise petty offences, the ADALA (Association “for the right to a fair trial”), with the support of the
South African vagrancy laws hark back to colonial times and violate human rights
Daily MaverickAbdirahman Maalim Gossar13 December 2020 In a watershed judgment, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has ruled that vague, outdated colonial-era laws,
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
Repeal Vagrancy Laws as they are Discriminatory: African Court Declares!
The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, in its 59th Ordinary Session, has today declared that vagrancy laws as contained in national laws are
Findings on Petty Offences Violations in Nigeria
Lawyers Alert in partnership with Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) released petty offences violations data report for Nigeria. The data is captured using
Johannesburg cannot Police its Future
The Mail & Guardian On 29 June this year, amid the generalized panic and concern about rising Covid-19 infection and police brutality both locally and
Kenya’s Gulag: The Dehumanisation and Exploitation of Inmates in State Prisons
The ElephantBy Patrick Gathara Kenyan prisons today carry the DNA of their forebears – the colonial prisons and Mau Mau detention camps. They are about
Petty Offences Newsletter: Digest of Campaign activities in September 2020
In September 2020, the Regional Campaign to Decriminalise Petty Offences hosted a virtual conference entitled Policing Pandemics, Balancing Rights. The conference communique and recordings of the
Petty Offences Newsletter: Increased Criminalisation in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa
Regional Campaign partners remain deeply concerned about the criminalisation of poverty across our continent. It is critical that the Principles on the Decriminalisation of Petty
ZIMBABWE: Balancing Human Rights and Enforcement of Public Health Measures
ICJ Kenya By Richard Ncube Corona virus which is popularly known as COVID 19 has taken a terrible grip of the world- it is described
Enemies of the Nation: How the ‘war on drugs’ has failed South Africa
The Daily Maverick First published by GroundUp The global “war on drugs” has failed. The decades during which it has been waged have inflicted devastating
PRESS RELEASE: With People in Detention Vulnerable to Uncontrollable spreads of COVID-19, Ground-Breaking Research Investigates the Gruelling Reality of Female Imprisonment in Sierra Leone
AdvocAid First comprehensive study of women in Sierra Leone’s prisons finds 62% of those interviewed were pre-trial detainees Pretrial detention contributes to overcrowding, which is
Malawi Human Rights Groups Warn of COVID Deaths in Packed Prisons
The Guardian Human rights campaigners in Malawi are calling on the government to urgently release people from its notoriously overcrowded prisons as cases of Covid-19
In Prisons Across Sierra Leone, Women are Detained because they Owe Debt
Progressive International Women’s imprisonment is closely related to poverty: women are in debt because they are poor and cannot afford basic life expenses, and their
Lawyers Alert Releases Data on Human Rights Abuse Associated with Petty Offences in Nigeria
The Nigerian Voice Data on human rights abuse associated with petty offences in Nigeria covering the period October 2019 and March 2020 have been released
Thousands of South Africans who Broke Lockdown Rules could have Criminal Records
Business Tech The Department of Justice and Correctional Services is currently working on new legislation which will stop admission of guilt fines attracting criminal records
Three Months in Jail for Breaking Lockdown Rules, Judge Orders Release of Waste Pickers
The Citizen Forced to choose between hunger and breaching the lockdown regulations, two waste pickers chose the latter – and wound up behind bars for
Prisons, Overcrowding and Preventing Covid-19 Transmission
Over 163,000 people are in correctional facilities in South Africa. Outbreaks of Covid-19 in these prisons can have catastrophic consequences for both prisoners and the
Amnesty International: Sub-Saharan States must Protect Detainees against COVID-19
Amnesty International In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, prisons are overcrowded. Prisoners often live in squalid conditions and the healthcare systems inside prisons are extremely
Malawi to Decongest Prisons With Covid-19 Cases Rising Fast Among Inmates
AllAfrica Minister of homeland security, Richard Chimwendo Banda , acknowledged that the situation in the the country’s prisons over Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is deteriorating because
The Campaign to Decriminalise Poverty and Status is a coalition of organisations from across the world that advocate for the repeal of laws that target people based on poverty, status or for their activism.
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