This is the first ESR Review issue of 2012. It focuses on gender mainstreaming, racial inequality, the link between access to socio-economic rights and the right to dignity.
News
On 28 May, Lukas Muntingh and Clare Ballard launched CSPRI's latest research report during a workshop held in Cape Town. The report is an update to the situational analysis of the children in prison in South Africa. The launch brought together many stakeholders in the field of child justice and allowed for interesting exchanges on the current challenges faced by children in conflict with the law.
Raising constitutional issues leads to delays in corruption cases; appointment of High Court judge to deal with these matters is hoped to reduce delays.
Most held on capital charges
A Lilongwe court released five security guards arrested under insult laws after an application by the Malawi Human Rights Commission.
ANSAmed reports on the strategies of the Algerian Penitentiary Administration in seeking to educate its youthful detainees.
High Court Judge Ralph Ochan this week dismissed terrorism charges against eleven Buganda riots suspects first indicted in 2009.
Sierra Leone’s parliament has just enacted a legal aid law which provides for the role of paralegals.
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.