Our People
Lukas Muntingh
Project Head
Lukas Muntingh is co-founder and Project Coordinator of Africa Criminal Justice Reform (ACJR). He holds a PhD (Law) from UWC and an MA (Sociology) from Stellenbosch University. He has been involved in criminal justice reform since 1992. He has worked in Southern and East Africa on child justice, prisoners’ rights, preventing corruption in the prison system, the prevention and combating of torture, and monitoring legislative compliance. He has published extensively and presented at several conferences. His current focus is on the prevention and combating of torture and ill-treatment of people deprived of their liberty.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- Muntingh, L. with Redpath, J., Faull, A. and Petersen, K. (2021) Democratic policing – a conceptual framework. Law, Democracy and Development, Vol 25, pp. 121-155
- Muntingh, L. (2020) Africa, Prisons and COVID-19’ Journal of Human Rights Practice, Aug 2020
- Muntingh, L. (2018) ‘Modest beginnings, high hopes: The Western Cape Police Ombudsman’ SA Crime Quarterly, Nr. 64, pp. 17-27.
- Muntingh, L. & Larner, S. (2018) ‘Juveniles in transition: The situation in South Africa’ IN S. C. O’Neill (Ed.), Incarcerated youth transitioning back to community: International perspectives (Ch 14). Singapore: Springer.
NETWORKS:
- Member: Editorial Board SA Crime Quarterly
Julia Sloth-Nielsen
Co-Founder
Julia Sloth-Nielsen is Professor of Law at the University of the Western Cape and the chair of Children’s Rights in the Developing World at the Child Law Department at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
She was a drafter of the South African Children’s Act, and has contributed to child law reform in many southern and eastern African countries (among them, Mozambique, Lesotho, Malawi, and South Sudan). She has published widely on child and family law issues, including in the areas of customary family law, juvenile justice, child-headed households, and access to justice.
Prof Sloth-Nielsen served as a member of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child between 2011 and 2016. Currently she serves as a member of an international expert group on surrogacy, co-convenes an annual summer school in Leiden on the frontiers of children’s rights, and co-convenes an annual conference on child and family law in Cape Town.
A staff member at UWC since 1994, Prof Sloth-Nielsen has extensive postgraduate supervision experience, with more than 70 students having graduated under her supervision, and has also lectured internationally in Belgium, Switzerland, China, and the United Kingdom.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- (Illicit) transfer by De Gree
- A foreskin too far? Religious, medical and customary circumcision and the Children's Act 38 of 2005 in the context of HIV/AIDS, pg 69
- Child justice
- Children and informal justice systems in Africa
- Children's rights jurisprudence in South Africa: A 20 year retrospective
- KOS v Minister of Home Affairs (2017) and its relevance to the law of marriage in South Africa
- Monitoring and implementation of children’s rights
- Policy and practice in South African prisons: An update
- Recent developments in child justice (2016-2018)
- Southern African perspectives on banning corporal punishment
- Surrogacy in South Africa in Eastern and Western perspectives on surrogacy
- The African children’s rights system
- The rights of minor siblings in migration
- The role of social workers in South Africa’s child justice system
- Visions on surrogacy - from North to South
- Too little? Too late? The implications of the Grootboom case for state responses to child-headed households
Jean Redpath
Senior Researcher
Jean Redpath joined Africa Criminal Justice Reform (ACJR) in September 2012. She has a PhD (Law) from the University of the Western Cape, an LLB and BSc from the University of Cape Town, and is an admitted attorney. Jean specialises in measuring the impact of policy and law through qualitative and quantitative research methods, and in measuring of criminal justice processes.
Prior to joining ACJR she worked as an independent consultant in criminal justice. She has worked on issues of criminal justice in countries across sub-Saharan Africa and in Eastern Europe.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- Muntingh, L. with Redpath, J., Faull, A. and Petersen, K. (2021) Democratic policing – a conceptual framework. Law, Democracy and Development, Vol 25, pp. 121-155
- Redpath J Criminal courts matter: The contribution of prosecutors in Lower Courts to South Africans’ safety and feelings of safety: A report prepared for the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa(2020) (40 pages)
- Muntingh, L. Redpath, J. Petersen, K, Faull, A. The State of Democratic Policing in South Africa (2018) Confidential Report for the Civilian Secretariat on Policing (200 pages)
- Redpath J & Petersen K, Western Cape Community Court Evaluation (2017) Confidential Report for the Western Cape Department of Community Safety, Africa Criminal Justice Reform (87 pages)
- Supplementary affidavit In the matter between the Social Justice Coalition & Equal Education v The Minister of Police, National Commissioner of Police, Western Cape Police Commissioner & Minister for Community SafetyEquality Court, Cape Town (2017)
- Expert affidavit In the matter between the Social Justice Coalition & Equal Education v The Minister of Police, National Commissioner of Police, Western Cape Police Commissioner & Minister for Community SafetyEquality Court, Cape Town, (30 March 2016) (32 pages excluding annexures)
- ‘Dagga possession ruling set to impact on the NPA’s conviction performance rate’ Daily Maverick 20 September 2018
Tina Lorizzo
Associate Professor
Tina Lorizzo is the founder and Director of REFORMAR. She is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Western Cape (South Africa) and a Research Associate at the Africa Criminal Justice Reform (ACJR) at the Dullah Omar Institute at the same university. She holds a PhD in Public Law and a Master's degree in Criminology from the University of Cape Town (UCT), and an LLB in Law from the University of Bologna (Italy).
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- Lorizzo, T., Petrovic, V. (2022) Democratic Policing in Mozambique - Challenges of Training for Professionalization.
- Lorizzo, T. (2024) Community Courts and Postcolonial Legal Pluralism: Criminal Justice in Mozambique.
- Lorizzo, T. (2024) Judges' Incarceration Decisions in Mozambique: The Need to Decolonize the Punitive Approach to Criminal Justice.
Janelle Mangwanda
Researcher
Janelle Mangwanda is a researcher at ACJR and joined the team in January 2019. She previously worked at the Department of Public Enterprises and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) under the Africa Institute of South Africa programme. Janelle holds a Master of Arts (MA) degree in International Relations from the University of Pretoria.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- Journal Article: April, Y & Mangwanda, J. (2014) A Snapshot View of Consolidated Democracy in South Africa and Nigeria. Africa Insight. Issue 44(2). Pp. 108-124
- Policy Brief: Mangwanda, J & Lacombe, B. 2015. Personality-Based Politics vs. Issue-Based Politics: A Tale of Two Nations. Africa Institute of South Africa. Briefing Number 115.
Crystal Nitsckie
Project Administrator
Crystal Nitsckie is the ACJR Project Administrator. Crystal joined the Dullah Omar Institute (formerly Community Law Centre) in June 2012 as a project administrator for both the Children's Right Project and ACJR (formerly CSPRI).
Previously she worked at the office of the Deputy Registrar and Secretariat at the University of the Western Cape as an Administrative Officer. Prior to this, she worked at a number of law firms as a Legal Secretary after completing her Paralegal Studies at the South African School of Paralegal Studies in 2006.