News

Prominent journalist, Daudi Mwangosi, died on Sunday, 2 September 2012 while covering clashes between the police and members of Tanzania's largest opposition political party, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema).

The aim of these initial workshops was to bring together stakeholders from government, NHRIs and civil society organisations of each respective country to discuss the contents of the UNCAT and to present the draft Domestication and Implementation Package (DIP). Participants met in Bujumbura, Burundi, on 8-9 August 2012 and Pretoria, South Africa, on 28-29 August 2012.

The coalition Let's Save Togo said more than 100 people were injured and 125 arrested during the rallies on 21 and 22 August. The rallies were dispersed by police with tear gas.

On Thursday 16 August 2012, 36 miners were killed by South African Police Services officials at Marikana mine in Mpumalanga. The violence arose out of a protracted labour dispute involving rival labour unions and Lonmin management. The final death toll of the week of 13 August 2012 is close to 50. Clare Ballard argues that the recent amendment of section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act, now awaiting the President’s signature, has weakened protection by significantly broadening the grounds on which the use of deadly force may be used and justified. She states that having constitutionally compliant legislation will not fix the seemingly endemic problems within the SAPS, nor will it repair its damaged reputation. What it can do, however, is strike the best the balance between undoubtedly complicated policing concerns, public safety and the rights to life, freedom from violence and dignity.

A number of political detainees including opposition figures who were arrested as part of a major crackdown last month were released after more than a month in detention. It is unclear whether any were actually charged. Some detainees had spent more than two months in detention.

A report by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) on Liberia's justice system has revealed that only 3 per cent of cases docketed in the Circuit Courts in 2010 went to trial, leaving thousands awaiting trial in the country's prisons.

Among those no longer held in the prison include Briton and his colleagues charged with ritual killing of thirteen people held since April 2012

On 1 August 2012 Somalia's 825-member National Constituent Assembly (NCA) approved a new constitution for the country by a large majority. Traditional elders, who had selected the NCA members in a process backed by the United Nations, will also choose a new parliament, which in turn is scheduled to choose Somalia's new leader on August 20, when the mandate of the Transitional Federal Government expires.