Pretrial Justice News

Dear friends,

Welcome to this update on the Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice. In an effort to keep all our partners around the world informed about what we—and you—are doing to rationalize the use of pretrial detention and increase access to legal aid, we are now planning to send the update every month. 

Thank you for reading, and please continue to send me your feedback and thoughts.

Edit Bain
Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice
ebain@justiceinitiative.org
Follow us on Twitter: @PretrialJustice

New Report on Pretrial Justice and Health

The Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice has published online its latest report highlighting the negative impacts outcomes of excessive pretrial detention. The 88-page report, Pretrial Detention and Health: Unintended Consequences, Deadly Results, is aimed at medical professionals, and includes a review of existing literature, and recommendations for how the medical community should respond. It follows earlier reports on the socio-economic impact effects on prisoners and families, and on the links between excessive pretrial detention and torture.

New Resource Site

In October the Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative at the University of Western Cape launched a new resource site Promoting Pretrial Justice in Africa. The site provides a much needed central depository for regional pretrial justice resources; you can browse for information by country or region or search under thematic issues. Please be in touch with the PPJA resource team if you have any suggestions or materials and upcoming events to add to the site.

Police and Pretrial Detention Debated at the 50th Session of the ACHPR

Sixteen civil society organisations submitted a joint statement on the costs and impact of excessive pretrial detention to the 50th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights. The statement calls on the ACHPR to establish a set of standards on police and pretrial detention aimed at national police and justice agencies, both guide their work, and provide a framework for assessment. 

At a side event, introduced by the Chair of the ACHPR Mrs Modupe Atoki, the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum (APCOF) and the Open Society Justice Initiative sought inputs to a draft set of standards that they believe could help reduce arbitrary arrest and detention. For more information and to provide inputs to the standards contact Sean Tait at APCOF.

Challenging Stereotypes in the Mexican Media

Mexican Journalist Marco Lara Klahr has put the finishing touches on the book ‘No Mas (+) Pagadores’ a journalist’s guide to the Mexican criminal justice reform. The guide is a collaborative initiative between the Presumption of Innocence in Mexico Project  and Article 19 and assists journalists to diversify their reporting on criminal justice issues away from the preconceived stereotypes. The publication will be launched in Mexico City on November 28. For more information contact Denise Tomasini Joshi.   

Arrest Rights Advocacy in Europe and at the UN

The Open Society Justice Initiative and six other groups have urged the justice ministers of England and Wales, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland to reconsider their objections to a proposed European directive on arrest rights. The open letter argues says the draft directive ‘represents an important step towards full mutual recognition within the common European justice space’. James A. Goldston, executive director of the Justice Initiative, also highlighted the particular challenges faced by the poor in securing access to justice in custody, and their vulnerability to excessive pretrial detention in a speech at UN headquarters in New York.

What We're Reading and Watching

• Reforming Pakistan’s Prison System A new International Crisis Group report concludes that ‘a corrupt and dysfunctional prison system has contributed to—and is a manifestation of—the breakdown of the rule of law in Pakistan’. 50,000 out of 78,000 prisoners are held on remand.  
• The Ukrainian Constitutional Court ruled in October that a person may not be held in custody without a court order for more than 72 hours. Lawyers tell the Human Rights in Ukraine website the changes are 'long-needed but not enough'.
• IRIN news reports that Ugandan human rights activists are concerned that President Yoweri Museveni's proposal to do away with bail for certain crimes could swell the country's already overcrowded prison system.
• HIV in Prisons [pdf] An advance copy of a new UNODC toolkit for assessing the situation and needs of detainees with HIV/AIDS.
• The Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture in Africa: The Potential for Synergy or Inertia? [pdf]  An article by Debra Long and Lucas Muntingh.
• United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Database launched at the 20th Anniversary Event of the Working Group on November 14 and containing opinions on over 600 cases.

Upcoming Events and Announcements

• November 16-18
  Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Group Meeting (IEGM) on Strengthening Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems in Vienna, Austria.
• November 30
  Closing date for submissions to the European Commission on the Green Paper on Detention and closing date to submit articles to the SUR International Journal on Human Rights on the theme of ‘Citizen Security and Human Rights’.
• January 10-12
  Women, Crime and Criminal Justice Practice University of Cambridge, UK.