Category: Detention

  • Combating prison overcrowding and illegal detentions in the Democratic Republic of Congo

    Combating prison overcrowding and illegal detentions in the Democratic Republic of Congo

    In this article published in ASF’s latest annual report, we look back at the situation of detention in the Democratic Republic of Congo (endemic prison overcrowding, endemic violations of prisoners’ fundamental rights, etc.) and the action taken by ASF and its partners to assist people in detention and work for structural and sustainable change in…

  • Bail in Uganda: A right or a privilege?

    Bail in Uganda: A right or a privilege?

    Bail[1] has increasingly become a contentious issue not only in Uganda but globally. Legal and social debates on the balance between public safety and the right to personal liberty rage on in public and political spaces. Those debates have been at the center of attention in Uganda as many have called for reform of the…

  • The challenges of detention in the Central African Republic

    The challenges of detention in the Central African Republic

    Since 2015, ASF has paid particular attention to the issue of imprisonment in the Central African Republic (CAR). In partnership with the Bar Association, lawyers and civil society, ASF is raising awareness among detainees, monitoring detention conditions, offering legal services to detainees and lobbying to ensure that the justice reform (sectoral justice policy) initiated in…

  • ASF’s annual report is available!

    ASF’s annual report is available!

    Avocats Sans Frontières is delighted to present its latest annual report. Our teams offer a seriers of articles about our field work on detention, transistional justice, business & human rights, communities of practice, our advocacy work, etc.

  • Protecting constitutional rights of pre-trial detainees through access to justice in Uganda

    Protecting constitutional rights of pre-trial detainees through access to justice in Uganda

    ASF’s team in Uganda has just published a baseline study on ‘Protecting constitutional rights of pre-trial detainees through access to justice in Uganda’. It is available on our website and will be presented during an ExPEERience Talk on 2nd March 2023.You can sign up to follow the presentation online.

  • Fight for the decriminalisation of poverty and minor offences

    Fight for the decriminalisation of poverty and minor offences

    In Morocco, as in other countries, ASF is committed to the decriminalisation of poverty and minor offences. These offences mainly affect vulnerable groups, particularly people in a precarious socio-economic situation and people who suffer discrimination on the basis of their gender, origin or sexual orientation.

  • Being detained in the Makala prison during the pandemic : An interview with the NGO PRODHOJ

    Being detained in the Makala prison during the pandemic : An interview with the NGO PRODHOJ

    Between March and September 2021, PRODHOJ, with the support of Avocats Sans Frontières, carried out monitoring work to evaluate the conditions of detention and access to justice of detainees in the central prison of Kinshasa, known as ‘Makala’, in the context of the COVID19 pandemic. In this interview, Samuel Atweka and Gysy Uma, both members…

  • Prisons in Tunisia: inertia of a repressive system

    Prisons in Tunisia: inertia of a repressive system

    In Tunisia, the actors of the penal chain tend to perpetuate the repressive reflexes of the former Ben Ali regime. Prison overcrowding remains very high: around 131% rate of occupation with 23,607 prisoners at the end of 2020 (accused and convicted together) for around 18,000 places available, resulting in detention conditions below international standards.

  • Between walls – Mohamed Ramsis Ayari “The real bête noir in prison is overcrowding”

    Between walls – Mohamed Ramsis Ayari “The real bête noir in prison is overcrowding”

    (Nederlands) In het kader van het project “Alternative”, gefinancierd door de Europese Unie en uitgevoerd door ASF en ATL MST SIDA, streeft de Association des Juristes de Sfax naar de modernisering van het penitentiaire en strafrechtelijke systeem in Tunesië. Door middel van verschillende pleitbezorgings- en bewustmakingsactiviteiten met magistraten en gevangenispersoneel in Sfax werkt de vereniging…

  • Between walls – Omar Ben Amor (Art Acquis) : “Access to culture to every detainee at any time”

    Between walls – Omar Ben Amor (Art Acquis) : “Access to culture to every detainee at any time”

    Discover the work done by the association Art Acquis with prisoners in Tunisia. With its Perspectives project, supported by ASF and ATL MST SIDA Bureau National, the organisation uses art as therapy. Through the activities offered, it seeks to help prisoners express themselves better about their experience, to occupy themselves constructively during their incarceration and…