Criminal laws, particularly those providing for petty offences such as vagrancy laws, have consistently been used to arrest, detain, evict, or exploit the labour of

In December 2021, campaign partner, APCOF crafted an OP-Ed in South Africa’s Daily Maverick entitled ‘City of Cape Town’s ‘broken windows’ policy demands more than a criminal

As part of the civil society engagement at the 69th Ordinary Session of the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, the campaign issued the

“The vendor who changed Malawi: Mayeso Gwanda took the state to court after his arrest for an outdated and vague petty crime. While he was

As part of their activities under the Campaign to Decriminalise Petty Offences in Africa, the Organisation against Torture in Tunisia (OCTT) has launched an media

Throughout the globe, petty offenses, such as loitering laws, are used to exert social control. They criminalize poverty and marginalization and police gender norms. In

Regional High Level Consultation Dialogue Report on Implementation and Domestication of AU Standards to Decriminalize Petty Offences SADC Lawyers Association’s primary mandate is to promote

CPAP: The narrative of a criminal woman finds its bearings within the caste system in India. During British colonial rule, the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871

Lawyers Alert & SALC: On 5 August 2021, the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Abuja Division, per Justice Maha, handed down a groundbreaking decision against

Africa.com 22 January 2021 By Anneke Meerkotter On 4 December 2020, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights issued an Advisory Opinion which challenges

To promote constitutionally compliant legislation, in the past 27 years, South Africa’s policy and legislative environment has been a subject of sustained and progressive reform. However,

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

68th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights  14 April – 4 May 2021  Dear Hon. Chairperson, Hon. Commissioners, all protocols

The quarterly digest of petty offences campaign activities for November 2020 to February 2021 is in three languages, English, Portuguese and French.

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

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

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

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,

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

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

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

The ElephantBy Patrick Gathara Kenyan prisons today carry the DNA of their forebears – the colonial prisons and Mau Mau detention camps. They are about

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Citizen Forced to choose between hunger and breaching the lockdown regulations, two waste pickers chose the latter – and wound up behind bars for

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 In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, prisons are overcrowded. Prisoners often live in squalid conditions and the healthcare systems inside prisons are extremely

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