This book considers the challenges faced within criminal justice systems across a range of African jurisdictions, identifying recent efforts at reform, and highlighting instances of best practice.
Most African countries continue to experience issues of unlawful pre-trial detention, human rights abuses in prisons, long periods of awaiting trials, and prolonged criminal trials. The presence of these issues mars criminal justice processes and judicial oversight functions, and risks feeding corruption and increasing risks of torture, as well as negatively impacting suspects, their families, and communities. Drawing on insights from African academics, judges, and legal practitioners, this book considers recent criminal justice reforms across Burundi, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa. Authors focus on best practice for managing pre-trial detention, implementing effective non-custodial measures, expediting trials, and exploring the role of restorative justice in criminal justice administration.
The comparative insights and best practice for reform implementation highlighted in this book will be useful for legal and criminal justice researchers, as well as legal practitioners and policy makers working on criminal justice reform in sub-Saharan Africa.
This book considers the challenges faced within criminal justice systems across a range of African jurisdictions, highlighting instances of best practice. It will be useful for legal and criminal justice researchers, as well as legal practitioners and policy makers working on criminal justice reform in sub-Saharan Africa.
Introduction: Re-Shaping Criminal Justice Systems: Going Beyond
Legislation Part 1: Effective Mechanisms for The Management of Pre-Trial
Detention
1. Effective Mechanisms for the Management of Pre-Trial Detention:
A Comparative Analysis of Nigeria, Kenya, The Democratic Republic of Congo
and South Africa
2. Assessment of Pre-Trial Detention and the Protection of
the Fundamental Human Rights of Suspects/Defendants in Burundi
3. Pretrial
Detention: Challenges, Opportunities, and The Role of Technology in
Sub-Sahara Africa
4. Effective Mechanisms for The Management of Pre-Trial
Detention in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Rwanda Part 2: Mechanisms for
Speedy Trials in The Criminal Justice Systems Across Sub-Saharan Africa
5.
Practical Steps and Best Practices in Achieving Speedy Trials in Criminal
Justice Systems: An Experience from Uganda
6. Trial Within Trial as A Clog to
Fostering Speedy Trials in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review of the Nigerian
Practice
7. The Role of Prosecutors and Defence Attorneys in Enhancing Speedy
Trials in Rwanda
8. Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: Delay in Trials as a
Clog on the Wheels of Justice Part 3: Decriminalisation, Restorative Justice,
and Implementation of Non-Custodial Measures
9. An Appraisal of The Rights of
Victims of Violent Crimes in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana
10. Victim-Centric
Reforms in Nigeria: Examining Restorative Justice, Victim Participation and
Victim Protection Under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA)
2015
11. Bridging The Gender Gap: Interrogating the Exclusion of Female
Offenders in Borstal Institutions in Nigeria
12. Non-Custodial Sentencing
Alternatives: A South African Experience
13. An Overview of Non-Custodial
Penal Measures and Implementation Strategies in the Nigerian Criminal Justice
Administration
14. From Rhetoric to Reality: Transforming the Africa Courts
Decriminalisation of Petty Offences Advisory Opinion into Tangible Benefits
for Africas Poor
Adedeji Adekunle is a Professor of Law and the Research Lead of Juritrust Centre for Socio Legal Research and Documentation and a former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced legal Studies. He was Visiting Human Rights Fellow at the Human Rights Institute, Nigerian Human Rights Commission (2019-2020). He has edited several books such as Law of International Investments: Essays in honour of late Professor Ayo Ajomo (NIALS, Lagos, 2019, co-edited with Emmanuel Okon) and Freedom of Information and Democratic Governance in Nigeria, (NIALS Lagos, 2019). He is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Honorary Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
Suzzie Onyeka Oyakhire is a Senior Lecturer at the Leeds Law School, Leeds Beckett University. She holds a PhD in Law from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where she specialised in criminal law and justice. Her primary research explores reforms in criminal law, with a specific focus on the interests and rights of victims and witnesses of crime, particularly in the context of victim and witness protection in Nigeria. This work is highlighted in her book, Witness Protection and Criminal Justice in Africa: Nigeria in International Perspectives (Routledge 2023). She is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Osatohanmwen (Osato) Eruaga is an Associate Professor at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. She holds a Doctorate in Maritime Affairs from the World Maritime University, Sweden, an LL.M in Maritime Law from the University of Nottingham, and a law degree from the University of Benin. Her expertise spans public international law, marine environmental law, sustainability, criminal justice administration, and human rights law. She is a Fellow of the Yeosu Maritime Institute and a member of the United Nations Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment. She has contributed as a speaker, lecturer, and researcher at various local and international forums and has consulted for organisations such as the MacArthur Foundation, Danish Embassy, UNESCO, UNICEF, and UNODC. She also serves as an international consultant for the UNODC Global Maritime Crime Programme (Atlantic Ocean and Bay of Bengal).
