Prosecution Priorities: Selecting for success or prosecuting for impact?

Prosecution is the primary means through which those committing criminal acts are held to account. In South Africa, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has the power to institute criminal proceedings on behalf of the state in relation to all criminal acts, and is thus the primary enforcer of accountability.

However, South Africa does not have a universal or mandatory prosecution regime, and nor does it have the resources to prosecute all arrests; discretion must be exercised in prosecutions. A seemingly neutral NPA prosecution policy guiding the exercise of this discretion has had the result that less impactful crimes are more likely to be prosecuted.

This webinar is based on a paper which seeks to understand why that might be the case and proposes a process and a logic for developing prosecution priorities which may change this result and improve the impact of prosecutions.

Please join ACJR for a 90-minute webinar scheduled on Wednesday, 22 September 2021 from 10: 00 am to 11:30 am with the following panelist:

• Jean Redpath - ACJR

Facilitator

• Lukas Muntingh - ACJR

Following registration, participants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

ACJR wishes to acknowledge the Open Society Foundation-South Africa and the Sigrid Rausing Trust for making this webinar possible.

REGISTER HERE