Full Description
This book considers the challenges faced within criminal justice systems across a range of African jurisdictions, identifying recent efforts at reform, and highlighting instances of best practice.
Most African countries continue to experience issues of unlawful pre-trial detention, human rights abuses in prisons, long periods of awaiting trials, and prolonged criminal trials. The presence of these issues mars criminal justice processes and judicial oversight functions, and risks feeding corruption and increasing risks of torture, as well as negatively impacting suspects, their families, and communities. Drawing on insights from African academics, judges, and legal practitioners, this book considers recent criminal justice reforms across Burundi, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa. Authors focus on best practice for managing pre-trial detention, implementing effective non-custodial measures, expediting trials, and exploring the role of restorative justice in criminal justice administration.
The comparative insights and best practice for reform implementation highlighted in this book will be useful for legal and criminal justice researchers, as well as legal practitioners and policymakers working on criminal justice reform in sub-Saharan Africa.
Contents
Introduction: Re-Shaping Criminal Justice Systems: Going Beyond Legislation Part 1: Effective Mechanisms for The Management of Pre-Trial Detention 1. Effective Mechanisms for the Management of Pre-Trial Detention: A Comparative Analysis of Nigeria, Kenya, The Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa 2. Assessment of Pre-Trial Detention and the Protection of the Fundamental Human Rights of Suspects/Defendants in Burundi 3. Pretrial Detention: Challenges, Opportunities, and The Role of Technology in Sub-Sahara Africa 4. Effective Mechanisms for The Management of Pre-Trial Detention in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Rwanda Part 2: Mechanisms for Speedy Trials in The Criminal Justice Systems Across Sub-Saharan Africa 5. Practical Steps and Best Practices in Achieving Speedy Trials in Criminal Justice Systems: An Experience from Uganda 6. Trial Within Trial as A Clog to Fostering Speedy Trials in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of the Nigerian Practice 7. The Role of Prosecutors and Defence Attorneys in Enhancing Speedy Trials in Rwanda 8. Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: Delay in Trials as a Clog on the Wheels of Justice Part 3: Decriminalisation, Restorative Justice, and Implementation of Non-Custodial Measures 9. An Appraisal of The Rights of Victims of Violent Crimes in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana 10. Victim-Centric Reforms in Nigeria: Examining Restorative Justice, Victim Participation and Victim Protection Under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 11. Bridging The Gender Gap: Interrogating the Exclusion of Female Offenders in Borstal Institutions in Nigeria 12. Non-Custodial Sentencing Alternatives: A South African Experience 13. An Overview of Non-Custodial Penal Measures and Implementation Strategies in the Nigerian Criminal Justice Administration 14. From Rhetoric to Reality: Transforming the Africa Court's Decriminalisation of Petty Offences Advisory Opinion into Tangible Benefits for Africa's Poor
