Criminal Justice

Current cases:

• Malawi: Ending impunities of police officers – case concerning abduction and rape of a girl child.
• Malawi: Case concerning malnutrition in prisons.
• Malawi: Case challenging the constitutionality of offence criminalising poverty, and police mass arrest practices.
• Malawi: Challenging the constitutionality of the begging and begging with deformities offences.

Completed cases:

• Malawi: Bringing accountability for sexual violence by the police.
• Nigeria: Challenging police arrest practices.
• Zambia: Case challenging prison conditions and provision of adequate food for prisoners with HIV.
• Nigeria: Challenging police arrest practices.
• Malawi: Asserting the right to legal representation.
• Lesotho: Challenging police torture.
• Malawi: Case challenging the imprisonment of children.
• Zambia: Challenging the Mental Disorders Act, including provisions relating to detention.
• Malawi: Discriminatory sentencing of persons with albinism.
• Malawi: Case challenging the constitutionality of the offence of being a rogue and vagabond.
• Malawi: Challenging police arrest practices which unlawfully target sex workers.
• Lesotho: Seeking open arrest for military detainees subjected to torture.
• Malawi: Case challenging unmet palliative care in detention.
• Malawi: Challenging sentencing practices which result in the incarceration of children with their caregivers.
• Malawi: Asserting the right to legal representation.
• Lesotho: Palliative care for military prisoners.
• Malawi: Challenging the use of common nuisance offence.
• Botswana: Challenging the refusal to provide antiretrovirals to foreign prisoners.
• Malawi: Challenging refusal to grant bail for terminally ill remandees.

Publications:

• Southern Africa: The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on sex workers in southern Africa (2021).
• SALC policy brief: a legal overview of the impact of COVID-19 on justice and rights in Southern Africa (2020).
• Eswatini: Sex Workers & the Law (2019).
• A victory for the right to fair and substantial justice: recent cases from the Malawi High Court (2017).
• Know your rights: sex work and the law in Malawi (2017).
• Using the Court to protect vulnerable people: perspectives from the judiciary and legal profession (2014).
• No justice for the poor: A preliminary study of enforcement of nuisance-related offences in Blantyre, Malawi (2013).

Submissions

• SALC submission on Zimbabwe’s 3^rd universal periodic review (2021).
• Zambia: submission on the review of the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code (2021).
• Joint stakeholder submission to the UNHRC for the LOIPR to be considered in relation to Malawi (2021).
• Submission to the report of the secretary-general on the question of the death penalty pursuant to decision 18/117 of the human rights council (2020).
• Malawi: directorate of public prosecutions guidelines for prosecutors on nuisance-related offences in the penal code (2018).
• Unlawful and expensive – rights bodies criticise ongoing detention of migrants (2016).
• Submission to CRC on Malawi (2016).

Advocacy:

• Free press: cornerstone of democracy (2022).
• Zambia: Submission on the review of the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure code (2021).
• Ending impunity for police officers who commit sexual and gender-based violence in Malawi (2021).
• African court challenges states to rethink the basis of their laws (2021).
• Are African nations putting policing over public health? (2020).
• SALC journal article: litigating to protect the rights of poor and marginalised groups in urban spaces (2020).
• #WFD2018 stop the torture by starvation in Malawi’s prisons (2018).
• Malawi: inequality and the myth of the right to legal representation (2018).
• SALC in the news: Policing of petty offences (2017).
• Lawmakers have moved at a snail’s pace to change draconian Laws (2017).
• Court Diary: Mareka and 22 other v Commander of the Lesotho Defence Force (2016).
• International Human Rights Day: SALC looks back on key developments and children in 2016.
• Malawi High Court rules mandatory HIV testing unconstitutional (2015).
• Botswana: Botswana government to appeal ARV ruling (2015).
• Zambia’s prisoner transfer agreement (2015).
• The strong arm of the Angolan government extends to Banjul NGO forum (2015).
• Justice at the barrel of a gun: a court diary from Lesotho (2015).
• Malawi High Court rules mandatory HIV testing is unconstitutional (2015).
• Reflection on the case of two men accused of sodomy in Zambia (2014).
• Malawi @ 50: Police sweeping exercises a cause for concern (2014).
• Court Update: Maseko and Makhubu challenge the constitutionality of their arrest and detention (2014).
• Zambia: inmates with HIV deserve balanced diet (2013).
• Living on the earnings of sex work in Malawi – a typical tale of misinterpreting the law to conveniently criminalise sex workers (2013).
• SALC looks to secure pre-trial justice in Malawi by offering specialist training (2013).
• Holding police accountable for their systemic abuse of sex workers (2013).
• Beatrice Mtetwa versus the Zimbabwean police (2013).
• SALC attends the 52^nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (2012).
• Health considerations in bail hearing in Malawi- An analysis of the case of Mphembedzu v The Republic (2012).
• Judicial strike in Malawi has serious repercussions on pre-trial justice (2012).