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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 3:19 am
Time: 3:19 am
Results for criminal justice systems (africa)
1 results foundAuthor: Paralegal Advisory Service Institute Title: Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems in Africa: Survey Report Summary: The aim of this survey is to provide a snapshot of access to legal aid in Africa. The purpose is to provide practitioners and policymakers with accurate and contemporary data to inform the development of legal aid strategies. The survey was conducted as part of the implementation of Economic and Social Council resolution 2007/24, entitled “International cooperation for the improvement of access to legal aid in criminal justice systems, particularly in Africa”. The laws governing legal aid recognize a lawyer-centred model. However, the numbers of practising lawyers in African countries are low in proportion to the overall population. Further, the large majority of these lawyers reside in urban areas, whereas the majority of the population live in rural or peri-urban areas. Thus, most people live outside of the reach of lawyers who can provide them with legal aid services. While the laws respect a right to legal aid, State budget allocations to legal aid are minimal in many countries. Access to legal aid is not available at all stages of the criminal justice process. It is particularly rare at police stations and is only sometimes available in prisons and in the lower courts. There is an absence of any national strategy to provide people with “primary justice” services in the same way as there is, for instance, to provide primary health-care services. A “patchwork” of non-State actors operating individually, or in some cases in networks, provides supplementary services. The consequences of this situation are several. On the “supply” side, the absence of a mechanism to push cases through the criminal justice system contributes to delays in the process and increasing case backlogs in the courts, as well as to high remand populations in prison. This contributes significantly to prison overcrowding, which is a problem in many African countries. On the “demand” side, the absence of affordable legal aid services increases poor people’s sense of social exclusion and powerlessness. Traditional dispute resolution mechanisms become, by default, the only option for most people, in particular in rural areas. Details: Vienna: UNODC, 2012. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 3, 2012 at: http://www.ipjj.org/fileadmin/data/documents/reports_monitoring_evaluation/UNODC_AccessToLegalAidinAfricaSurveyReport_2011_EN.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Africa URL: http://www.ipjj.org/fileadmin/data/documents/reports_monitoring_evaluation/UNODC_AccessToLegalAidinAfricaSurveyReport_2011_EN.pdf Shelf Number: 125148 Keywords: Assistance to the PoorCourtsCriminal Justice Systems (Africa)LawyersLegal Aid |