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.
News
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on Human and People's Rights, Promoting Pre-trial Justice in Africa (PPJA) is launching a campaign for the repeal of outdated offences.
On Tuesday 17 April, CSPRI delivered a submission on the budget vote (Vote 21, 2012/13), the strategic plan (2012/13 – 2016/17) and the annual performance plan (2012/13) of the Department of Correctional Services to the Portfolio Committee on Correctional Services.
Demonstrations are being held across Swaziland calling for democratic reforms in the kingdom, ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch. The anniversary of the Swazi Constitution prompts annual protests in the kingdom.
Benin follows recommendations of Committee Against Torture and passes new Code of Criminal Procedure
The Uganda High Court in early April 2012 released four men who had been facing terrorism charges since the September 2009 Buganda riots. The Observer newspaper questions in an editorial why the men were kept in detention for 30 months when there was no evidence with which to try them.
The Release Political Prisoners (RPP) Trust, a lobby group, claims to have documented at least 35 cases of extra-judicial killings committed since December 2011.
Human rights groups welcomed the decision by Joyce Banda, who succeeded Bingu wa Mutharika on Saturday 7 March after his death from a heart attack.
Rioters went on a rampage in central Nigeria and burnt down a police station to protest the detention of their friends, police said on 2 April 2012.
On 25 March, Clare Ballard wrote an opinion editorial on a case being heard by the North Gauteng High Court, in which the Southern African Litigation Centre (SALC) and the Zimbabwean Exiles Forum have applied for the review of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the South African Police Services' decision not to investigate or prosecute Zimbabwean officials, resident in South Africa from time to time, for alleged act of torture carried out on MDC supporters in March 2007.
John Kapito, the Chairperson of the Malawi Human Rights Commission, was detained on Friday 16 March by eight policemen who accused him of possessing guns, holding seditious meetings and printing seditious T-shirts, which insulted President Bingu wa Mutharika. On Sunday security forces prevented people from attending an opposition meeting, leading to violence.
Constitutional and legislative protocols breached during press conference held after recapture of three prisoners attempting to escape by climbing over a wall at Pretoria Central Prison on 16 March 2012, says Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative (CSPRI).