INTRODUCTION 

Many African countries are experiencing a problem of congestion in prisons. This situation makes it difficult to implement relevant United Nations Instruments, inter alia, United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for treatment of offenders, Riyadh Guide Lines, Tokyo Rules, Beijing Rules and local instruments. One way to combat this problem is the strict implementation of national and international legal instruments. At the national level, we have: Habeas Corpus Act (Police), Nolle Prosequi (Prosecution), alternatives to imprisonment, indictment act, suspended sentence (Judiciary); review of sentence, release on parole; remission system (Prisons). The implementation of all those instruments will keep many people out of prison.

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By N. Masamba Sita (PhD)

UNAFRI Paper presented at the Programme Network of Institutes’ (PNI) workshop on Rule of Law and development, 13th session of the Commission Vienna, 13th May 2004

"For many, crime and development are so closely interrelated that there is nothing more logical (or natural) than to look at them in a causative, or at least highly associated manner” (Ugljesa Zvekic, 1990:9).

INTRODUCTION

A general statement often made is that there is no development where there is no peace. It is said that “African policy makers are keenly aware of the fact that substantial improvements in the economic and social situation of their populations are contingent upon the maintenance of peace. Without peace, little or nothing can be achieved” (ECA, 2004:3). Generally, reference is made, in the case of the African region, to armed conflicts, which are per se violations of the rule of law. It should be noted that armed conflicts are made up of or are accompanied of different other violations of the rule of law such as: looting, rape, homicide and other atrocities, trafficking in firearms, etc. It is therefore worthy noting that these are different types of crime and that crime is identified as one of the major obstacles to development. This is what the presentation endeavours to demonstrate.

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Violence against Women and Girls during Armed Conflicts in Africa: Nature, Extent and a Way Forward
A paper presented by Dr. N. Masamba Sita at the 17th UN Commission on Crime in Vienna, April 2008.

Violence against women and girls is not only from one region of the world, also from everywhere where there are armed conflicts. Women and girls are victim of the violence by virtue of their femininity. The paper identified type of violence during armed conflicts to include Physical harm or suffering and Psychological harm or suffering.

Further, the presenter noted that in majority of cases, there is total impunity of violence against women and girls during and after armed conflicts. The different reasons for this include: the weakness of National criminal Justice System (NCJS); lack of complaint due to ignorance and/ or fear of the retaliatory reaction of the offender, or of the community, of stigma; and lack of sufficient evidence. The paper recommended an organized sensitization campaigns through electronic and print media, that should aim at potential victims, offenders and the Civil Society Organizations.

Also, UNAFRI envisages organizing an expert meeting that will avail opportunity to representatives of concerned Civil Society Organizations, the ICC Prosecutor, and any other interested organizations, to discuss inter alia, the mechanisms to put in place for the Prosecutor in ICC to have access to any useful information at their disposal.Click here for more.

A paper presented by Dr. N. Masamba Sita at the PNI Workshop, 15th Session of the Commission, Vienna, Austria on April 2006

UNAFRI as a member of the United Nations Programme Network of Institutes (PNI) for crime prevention serves all the countries of African region in the field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, by providing at their request, the needed practical technical assistance, which emphasizes use of local experts, utilization of available local resources and consideration of socio-economic realities of the region.

The Technical Assistance offered to Member States includes Correctional Services, Prisons administration, community service, community policing, Law enforcement amongst others. Besides, technical assistance is also offered to Member States through consultative missions, whereby Crime problems are identified and discussed with local experts, country needs are identified, needed technical assistance specified and period for implementation of the agreed intervention drawn. Click here for more

Corruption has been seen as a fluid crime that took on several forms, and permeates all facets of life and cuts across boundaries.

it is interesting to note that because of the seemingly lukewarm response to measures to fight corruption, the emergence of the spirit to combat corruption in Africa was coming at an incomparable pace to check on the prevalence of corruption in both public and private sectors when viewed against the sophistication of corruption cases.

The paper recommended the need for a change of attitudes at national and local levels, and to perceive corruption as a major impediment to the achievement of national objectives. In addition, there is need to demonstrate effective legal action against any cases of corruption.Click here for more

NB: a Full list of UNAFRI Publications can be found in the Digital Library.Here one can search by Author, Title,Subject,Date and by keyword search.