Category: Detention
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Between walls – Walid Bouchmila (Horizon d’Enfance) : “When you make a project in prison, you really have to think of everyone”.
Within the “Projet Alternative”, implemented by Avocats Sans Frontières and ATL MST SIDA, Horizon d’Enfance sets up cultural activities at the Gabès prison, training courses for prison staff and qualifying training courses (plumbing, plastering, culinary arts and pastry making) for prisoners. The latter also benefit from training in entrepreneurship, support in setting up micro-projects and…
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ASF joins the “Poverty is not a crime” campaign
ASF joins the Open Society Foundation, APCOF, PALU, and ACJR in a campaign to promote the decriminalisation and declassification of minor offences. Particularly affecting people in vulnerable situations, these laws and their application are both arbitrary and discriminatory. “Vagrancy”, “disorderly behaviour” or “idleness” remain valid grounds for arresting and imprisoning individuals, contributing to the endemic…
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Arbitrary detention in DR Congo: The Detention ExPEERience network introduces a liability action against the State in 4 jurisdictions
On September 15, 2020, 6 requests were filed at the High Courts in Kinshasa, Mbuji-Mayi (Kasai Oriental), Lubumbashi (Haut Katanga), and Kindu (Maniema). Written in the name of citizens and civil society organisations, they ask the competent judges to recognize instances of arbitrary dentention as well as the disastrous state of prisons in the country,…
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Ebru Timtik est morte, sauvons Aytaç Unsal
Les avocats Ebru Timtik et Aytaç Unsal, condamnés à respectivement 14 ans et 11 années de prison, ont décidé de faire une grève de la faim illimitée pour dénoncer le procès injuste dont plusieurs dizaines d’avocats turcs font l’objet. Ils demandent à pouvoir bénéficier d’un procès équitable. Ce jeudi 27 août 2020, nous avons appris…
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The spread of COVID-19 requires urgent and immediate measures to be taken to protect the rights of detainees in Africa
Joint statement adressed to the member states of the African Union and to human rights international organisations in Africa.
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Detained for 10 years for no reason
Makala, which means “coal” in Lingala, is the central prison of Kinshasa. It is also one of Africa’s main penitentiaries: there are around 8,500 inmates in a complex of pavilions and brick and metal shacks, initially designed to accommodate 1,500 people. It is a small town, an ecosystem, where all can be valued, exchanged, and…
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Désiré, free at last after “9 years of death”
With the help of ASF, Désiré Loko has been released after spending exactly 8 years, 5 months and 21 days in preventive detention at Kinshasa’s central prison, even though he was innocent. His case illustrates the problem of preventive detention in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prisoners sometimes spend years in detention without having a…
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Tunisia: the law against drugs grinds to a standstill
In spite of declarations in the media and the adoption of a new bill by the Council of Ministers, the current anti-drug law is now entering its 25th year. Even though it is largely considered to be unfair, ineffective and obsolete, this law continues to victimise the most vulnerable sectors of the Tunisian population. ASF…
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Voices from Kinshasa (3/3): “Freedom is under the hammer”
In DR Congo, defending the rights of victims of injustice and exercising fundamental rights remains a challenge. Faced with an often failing legal system and, at times, intimidation, men and women are pursuing an ideal: to live in a fairer world. Last of three encounters: lawyer Hervé Mafwila, on illegal detention.
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A two-year struggle against the use of illegal detention in the DR Congo
For the last two years, ASF has been working actively with the Bar Associations of the west of the DR Congo in order to combat the abusive and sometimes even illegal use of preventive detention. In the coming weeks, ASF will come back to three key aspects of this project: the development of the capacity…