On 20 April 2013, APCOF, in collaboration with the African Commission for Human and Peoples Rights and the SADC Lawyers’ Association, held a Southern African regional workshop to discuss the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Draft Guidelines on the Use and Conditions of Police Custody and Pretrial Detention in Africa (the Guidelines). The meeting was held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Mr. Med Kaggwa, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Special Rapporetur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention opened the meeting, which was attended by civil society, national human rights institutions, police and prison agencies, and regional organisations from across Southern Africa.

At the last African Commission meeting in April 2013, Commissioner Kaggwa presented the Draft Guidelines to an expert stakeholders’ meeting, where valuable input was received and it was agreed that regional consultations would follow. Today’s consultation in Johannesburg was the first of four regional consultations to gather expert comment on the content of the Guidelines ahead of their revision, refinement and possible adoption by the African Commission. This southern African meeting is the first such regional consultation.

The discussions were not only productive in terms of strengthening the draft Guidelines, but the discussion promoted awareness and debate on the situation of police arrest, custody, and detention in the SADC Region. Importantly, the consultation also provides an opportunity for the region’s various stakeholders to begin projects of collaboration on important initiatives to promote the rule of law and human rights.

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is accepting written comments on the draft Guidelines, which are available on the Commission’s website (http://www.acphr.org) or electronic submissions can be made at http://www.ppja.org.

APCOF, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) jointly organised an event on the side-lines of the 53rd Ordinary Session of the Commission on 10 April 2013. The side event explored innovative police training from various practitioners while allowing for input and discussion from participants. The side event also considered how the issue of police and human rights could become a more integrated part of the promotion and protection aspect of the work of the ACHPR.  For full report please follow the link -

 ^{http://www.apcof.org/files/5668_ACHPRseminarPoliceandHumanRights130414.pdf}

APCOF, on behalf of the Article 5 Initiative, made a submission to the UN Committee against Torture ahead of Kenya's second review by the Committee on 15 - 16 May 2013. The submission provides an evidence-based discussion of the key challenges in the implementation of UNCAT in Kenya, including:

- gaps in the legal framework for protection against torture and other ill-treatment; in particular the lack of comprehensive protection against torture in Kenyan law;

- challenges in relation to the implementation of the new policing legislation, and the credible reports that torture and other ill-treatment by law enforcement officials persists;

- issues pertaining to access to justice, including access by detainees to a lawyer;

- poor conditions of detention in police cells and prisons;

- the ongoing challenge of arbitrary arrest and detention;

- evidence obtained by torture, the use of confessions as a basis for conviction, and limited judicial recourse for persons whose convictions are based on confessions;

- the lack of independent and credible investigations into allegations of human rights abuses in the Mt. Elgon and Mandera security operations;

- limitations, both legislative and practical, on the functions and powers of Kenya's national human rights institution;

- the failure of internal and external oversight systems and complaints mechanisms in Kenya's prison system;

- allegations of expulsion, refoulement, returns and extraditions;

- structural and practical limitations on the right to redress;

- ratification of OPCAT.

The submission then makes a number of recommendations for consideration by the Committee.

The report is available here: http://www.apcof.org/files/5052_Submission_A5I_Shadow_Report_Kenya-2.pdf 

From 24 – 26 April, APCOF and the Article 5 Initiative partnered with the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) to facilitate a regional training workshop to strengthen the monitoring and investigation of torture by national human rights institutions (NHRIs). 

The workshop, entitled ‘"A regional free from torture": Enhancing the leading role of NHRIs in the prevention of torture and ill-treatment in Southern Africa’ was held in Johannesburg and attended by representatives from NHRIs, civil society organisations and law enforcement agencies from across the Southern African region. The workshop sought to build partnerships and a common agenda between the participants, with the outcome being a set of activities at the Southern African level to combat and prevent torture.

APCOF’s role during the workshop was to deliver training in relation to effective investigations into torture. This activity built on APCOF’s previous work in 2010/11 when similar training was delivered to police oversight bodies in Kenya and Tanzania, in partnership with the Trilateral Cooperation Fund of Germany and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate of South Africa.

On 22 and 23 April, APCOF delivered two seminars as part of the University of Witwatersrand’s Graduate School of Public and Development Management post-graduate certificate course on civilian oversight of police. APCOF was invited to facilitate two seminars for 30 participants from the Gauteng Department of Community Safety. The first seminar, delivered by Louise Edwards, focused on the international and regional framework for a rights-based approach to policing. The second seminar, presented by Sean Tait, provided participants with regional trends in oversight of policing, through the use of case studies and examples of good practice.

The seminars provided APCOF with an opportunity to engage with practitioners at the Gauteng Department of Community Safety on the importance of taking a rights-based approach to policing, and the centrality of effective oversight to achieving a rights-based approach. APCOF was able to draw on its significant international and regional comparative experience to illustrate its points through example, and to encourage discussion and debate amongst participants.

In its submission to the 53rd session of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR), the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) expressed its concern that "some state security services (police, intelligence and other powers and violating citizens' rights. There has been an increase in the paramilitary forces) in southern Africa are routinely abusing their brutality of state security services across the region, including the use of excessive lethal force against unarmed civilians, the violent dispersal of legitimate public demonstrations, and the unlawful arrest and illegal detention of citizens - some of whom have died in police custody."

The submission quoted a range of examples, and also noted a recent APCOF study on Policing and Human Rights in Southern Africa which concluded that despite the Southern African Regional Police Commissioners Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) having adopted a Code of Conduct in 2001, there is little evidence that this code, which is a non-binding legal instrument, is being adhered to.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201304110241.html?viewall=1 

http://www.apcof.org/files/6141_SARPCCO%20CoC%20report%20WEB.pdf 

For more information please see the invitation

http://www.apcof.org/files/6967_Invitation.pdf 

APCOF and the Centre for Human Rights (University of Pretoria) will collaborate to offer this inaugural course on Police Oversight and Accountability in Africa in June this year. The course will take place over one - week, and will be an intensive and advanced short course on this issue.

The aim of the course is to profile police accountability and oversight as human rights and governance concern, and assist in building a community of practitioners on the continent who can become active advocates for increased accountability of the police, and who are skilled to identify and act in terms of overseeing the actions of the police.

For more information see the course brochure:

http://www.apcof.org/files/5462_Police_oversight_brochure_2013.pdf

For online registration go to:

http://www1.chr.up.ac.za/index.php/ahrc-apply-online.html 

The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, APCOF and the Danish Institute for Human Rights invite you a side event at the next ACHPR session on Policing and Human Rights.

Background

International evidence indicates that the relationship between the police and citizens directly influences the extent to which the police are trusted, viewed as legitimate, and are able to successfully carry out their mandate to secure the safety of citizens. At the heart of this is the ability of the police organisation to inculcate human rights values and principles into its members in a manner that the will hold fast even under the most stressful conditions. This side event will explore innovative police training from various practitioners while allowing for input and discussion from participants.

This panel discussion is convened by the Article 5 Initiative (A5I). It brings together experts from across Africa to discuss measures for combating impunity and promoting redress for torture, and the role of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in addressing these challenges.

12.00 – 12.04 Introduction

Chair: Garcia Mvemba, Association for Justice, Peace and Democracy (Angola)

12.05 – 12.09 Case study: human rights defenders and torture in Egypt - challenges to combating impunity and promoting redress

Presenter: Masa Amir, NAZRA (Egypt)

12.10 – 12.14 The duty to combat impunity: reflections on the Article 5 Initiative project

Presenter: Lukas Muntingh, Civil Society Prison Reform Initiative (South Africa)

12.15 – 12.19 The duty to provide redress: report back from ‘Expert Meeting on Right to Reparation for Torture – the role of the African Human Rights Mechanisms’

Presenters: Shuvai Nyoni, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (South Africa) / Jürgen??Schurr, REDRESS (UK)

12.20 – 12.26 Questions and discussion

Chair: Garcia Mvemba, Association for Justice, Peace and Democracy (Angola)

12.27 – 12.30 Final remarks

Chair: Garcia Mvemba, Association for Justice, Peace and Democracy (Angola)

You are invited to a meeting of experts to consult on draft Guidelines for Pre-Trial Detention for possible adoption by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Commission).

The Experts Meeting will be held during the 53rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on 12 April 2013 in Banjul, The Gambia. This will be the first of several consultations on this issue. Details of the meeting are as follows:

Date:     12 April 2013
Time:     14.00
Venue:   Paradise Suites Hotel, Banjul, The Gambia

For further information, and a copy of the draft Guidelines, please go to:

http://www.achpr.org/news/2013/03/d78/

As part of the work being undertaken in terms of the Article 5 Initiative, APCOF and the Kenya National Human Rights Commission hosted a meeting of Kenyan government and civil society organisations on 22 and 23 November to further develop tools for the domestication of the UN Convention against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

APCOF and a range of partners from across the Southern African region met in Johannesburg on 23 and 24 October 2012 to launch a 10-country study on policing and human rights. The study utilised the SARPCCO Code of Conduct for Police Officials and measured 10 countries’ compliance with the Code. The countries reviewed were: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The first edition of an African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights Newsletter, Police and Human Rights in Africa, a collaboration between APCOF, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the ACHPR was launched at the 52nd session of the ACHPR on Wednesday 10 October 2012 in Yamoussoukro, Cote d'Ivoire.

At the 52nd session of the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) in Cote d' Ivoire this week, APCOF hosted a side event focusing on the use and application of soft law, in terms of lessons learned from the past 25 years of the ACHPR.

APCOF, the EAC Secretariat and the CHRI co-hosted a 2-day civil society consultative meeting in Bujumbura this week. The meeting brought together civil society organisations from across the 5 EAC countries and reviewed in detail proposed standard operating procedures for police in the region.

Police Accountability in Situations of Conflict: APCOF presents panel at 21st annual International Police Executive Symposium, 5-10 August, at UN Headquarters in New York City