Justice

In most African countries, the majority of people accused of a crime have no legal representation in court. In Africa it is also very common to find that the majority of prisoners who do have legal representation, have not met their lawyer before the day of their trial. In addition to these grave breaches of the right to a fair trial, the death penalty, corporal punishment and hard labour are still carried out in many African countries.

Our justice infrastructure programmes will focus on raising awareness of inmates’ rights and responsibilities and empowering them and their lawyers to provide the best defence possible in court, in order that justice might be done.

    The principles behind our Justice initiatives are those of natural justice, namely that:

    • A person accused of a crime should be given adequate notice about the proceedings, including the offence they are charged with.
    • Proceedings should be conducted so they are fair to all the parties.
    • Each party is entitled to ask questions and contradict the evidence of the opposing party.
    • A decision maker should take into account relevant considerations and extenuating circumstances, and ignore irrelevant considerations.
    • Justice should be seen to be done.

    Currently the majority of people in prison in Africa have no access to legal representation and little, if any, understanding of the court procedure. The judiciary and police are often rated as amongst the most corrupt institutions in the country.

    APP will bring about systemic change in Justice in prisons in Africa by:

    1. Short term

    • Provision of legal services death row and terminally ill inmates in exceptional hardship.
    • Provision of counseling and guidance on legal issues.

    2. Improving infrastructure

    • Legal libraries

    3. Education

    • Assist inmates with completing legal programmes by correspondence.
    • Train and facilitate paralegals both prisoners and members of the public.
    • Empower and train lawyers.
    • Conduct training for the judiciary.
    • Facilitating research by academics into justice in Africa.

    Past and present justice projects

    • Paralegal services such as tracing files, lodging appeals
    • Assisting terminally ill prisoners to be released before death
    • Legal education and provision of legal material
    • Facilitation of visits to prisons by members of the judiciary and lawyers
    • Assisting inmates to gain admission to LLB law degrees by correspondence

    Impacts

    We believe that legal education is crucial in helping to create a more just society. In the short term our legal education projects contribute towards a better understanding of the law and its effect amongst people in detention and prisons staff. In the long term, we believe that by facilitating legal education work, especially assisting inmates and ex inmates in gaining legal qualifications, we are contributing to the creation of a new generation of lawyers, who understands what it means to be in conflict with the law and the crucial importance that qualified legal representation has if one is to have a fair hearing in court. We believe that this is especially important in countries where there is little or no legal aid, and for this, amongst other reasons, few lawyers are attracted to criminal practice.

    To give you an idea of the level of impact we are having, this is what we achieved in this area in Uganda in 2010:

    • Provision of legal advice in response to queries from approximately 80 death row inmates.
    • Assisting 2 inmates to gain admission to the University of London to study for Law degrees by correspondence.
    • Assisting one ex inmate in gaining a law degree with a Ugandan university.
    • Provision of numerous legal texts in our libraries, working in partnership with the International Law Book Facility, and conducting legal education clubs.