Sierra Leone’s parliament has just enacted a legal aid law which provides for the role of paralegals.
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Malik Medjnoune was held for 12 years in pre-trial detention until international pressure from Amensty International and Alkarama, an Arab human rights organisation, forced a one-day "trial" in July 2011. He was released in May 2012, having served the full 12 years of the sentence handed down.
Employees of the US Embassy in Kigali have commended the Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS) for promoting better and safer environment for inmates of this prison.
UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has expressed concern to Libya's authorities over the deaths of three people in a detention centre in the north-western city of Misrata on 13 April 2012, saying it believes that the deaths were the result of torture. Most detainees are alleged Gadaffi sympathizers. Meanwhile, the Libyan authorities pass a number of new laws criminalizing opposition to the revolution.
Family of the dead detainee demand a probe into his death amid allegations that Police Commander Harry Bai runs the police station in which the death occurred like a private home.
The police "do not obey any judge", but follow their own internal regulations when it comes to detentions of police officers, General Commander of the Mozambican police, Jorge Khalau said in the northern city of Nampula about the detention of the Nacala district police commander, Adriano Muianga.
UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice adopts Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems in April 2012.
The Project's new co-ordinator, Mr. Edmund Folley, writes the feature article on improving children’s access to justice in the Gambia.
A 48-year-old man arrested for being drunk in public was beaten to death in a Durbanville, Cape Town, police cell in the early hours of Saturday 21 April 2012.
At the 51st Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Centre's statement focussed on the link between poverty and human rights, paying attention to issues such as access to water and sanitation, criminalisation of poverty and children and poverty.
On 18 April 2012, the Community Law Centre delivered a submission to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. The submission dealt with three issues, namely compliance with the Robben Island Guidelines, domestic oversight over places of detention and limiting the use of pre-trial detention.
At the 51st Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, Promoting Pre-trial Justice in Africa (PPJA) is launching a campaign for the repeal of outdated offences.