Ongoing Cases
NEWS RELEASE: Malawi High Court upholds protection of undocumented immigrants from arbitrary and indefinite detention.
30 July 2024, Blantyre – Yesterday, the Mzuzu High Court ordered that 30 days should be the reasonable time envisaged under the Immigration Act within which deportation of undocumented immigrants…
Mozambique: Challenging privileged conditions in prison for the rich
On 24 May 2023, 2000 Mozambican citizens, under the leadership of lawyer and human rights activist, Maria Alice Mabota, filed a petition before the Constitutional Council against section 8(2) of…
Completed Cases
Zambia: Health rights of HIV-positive prisoners
SALC is working with the Legal Resources Foundation in Zambia to secure the rights of HIV-positive prisoners to treatment, adequate food and improvements to prison conditions. The applicant inmates alleged…
Malawi: Challenging the imprisonment of children
Factual Background In 2018, a case was brought by civil society organisations were concerned that the conditions in Bvumbwe and Kachere prisons are deplorable and not in the best interests…
Articles
‘Camp courts are here to stay’
Polity 12 August 2025 Shilpa Rao On a Tuesday afternoon in July, a magistrate sits inside a local prison in Malawi. A remandee stands before him and begins to share…
The treatment of foreign nationals in SADC prisons
Polity 08 August 2025 Madelyn Evans The treatment of foreign nationals in prisons across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region has become an increasingly urgent human rights concern. Migrants,…
Resources
The ties that bind us
This collection of photos is curated in honour of Desmond Tutu, who continues to inspire our work. Click here to view the English, Portuguese, and French exhibition booklet.
What’s new in the Prison Bill 2025
Weekend Nation 5 April 2025 Chikondi Chijozi The Prisons Act in Malawi was enacted into law in 1956. When Malawi adopted the 1994 Constitution, which entrenched the Bill of Rights…
