On 22 October 2015 the DOI and CoE Food Security hosted a roundtable on exploring the link between developmental local government and food security. The objectives of the roundtable were to increase collective analysis and understanding of the extent to which municipalities are fulfilling their obligation towards the right to food and what the roles are for local government in this regard. Approximately 20 participants from academic institutions, state departments, civil society and the private sector attended.
PPJA has released a paper exploring the issues around arrest in Africa. The paper considers the historical roots of policing in Africa and how these have been translated in the post-colonial context. The paper suggests not all people are at an equal risk of arrest, but rather that it is the poor, powerless and out-groups that are at a higher risk of arrest. The report concludes with a number of recommendations, calling for further research, decriminalisation of certain offences, and restructuring of the police in African countries.
The BRICS domestic agenda, its country impacts, have not been subject to analysis by scholars from the five BRICS countries, whether university-based or those in the public research institutions. This is according to Prof Nico Steytler, South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Policy, at the Dullah Omar Institute of Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights, University of the Western Cape during the BRICS conference last week.
The CSPRI presentation "Toward the rational allocation of policing resources" builds on work done for the Khayelitsha Commission and presents new data analysing the situation in KwaZulu-Natal.
In March 2015, John Mutakha Kangu graduated with a doctoral degree from UWC. His doctoral study on devolution in Kenya was supervised by Prof Nico Steytler, SA Research Chair at the Dullah Omar Institute.
Cape Town, South Africa, 14-16 October 2015
CSPRI researcher Gwénaëlle Dereymaeker presented CSPRI's research findings on South Africa's anti-torture legislative framework at the Pan-African seminar hosted by REDRESS in Nairobi, Kenya, on 28-29 September.
CSPRI researcher Jean Redpath provided insights around the problem of pre-trial detention in the African context, with particular emphasis on problems in measuring the impact of interventions and of policy change.
A delegation from CSPRI contributed to the Committee's strategic planning session held on 15 September 2015.
Heads of state and government will gather at the United Nations in New York from 25-27 September 2015 for a three-day summit to endorse the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Judgment was recently handed down by the Port Elizabeth High Court in the much publicised St Alban’s case, as it became known, which emanates from an alleged mass assault of prisoners at the St Alban’s prisons in Port Elizabeth in July 2005.
South Africa has specific sentencing provisions which read together the Correctional Services Act, determine how soon someone may be released on correctional supervision.
