Post conflict justice is a concept that has in the last two decades gained notoriety and support across the world. The commitment by states to fight impunity by embracing accountability measures has increasingly gained support. This however, was not always the case. Before the 1980s the approach by most of the world was to turn a blind eye to serious violations committed during wars, insurgencies and serious conflict. This was done in the name of respecting state sovereignty, where other states were required to respect the conflict state by not intervening irrespective of egregious violations being committed to mankind. The tide eventually changed and many states have adopted numerous instruments as a sign of their commitment to fight impunity and bring accountability to the perpetrators of serious conflict. African states embraced this development, in 1998 during the Rome conference where the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court was adopted. African states participated in large numbers during the negotiations. Subsequently, African states signed and adopted the Statute overwhelmingly. To date, 33 African States have ratified the Rome Statute making Africa the most represented region in the Rome Statute system. With Africa's share of countless conflicts, where serious human rights violations have been violated, post conflict justice is increasingly a reality in Africa. The application of post conflict justice is an emerging and ever evolving field in Africa. The implementation of post conflict justice has been the center of contested debates. These debates have in the recent past become more pronounced especially where international intervention has been applied in assisting African post conflict societies to deal with the past and bring accountability. The impact that the accountability mechanisms play in restoring a post conflict society has been overshadowed by these debates. This study therefore seeks to provide a balanced discussion on the role that the accountability mechanisms can play in African post conflict societies. The study gives an overview of the evolution of post conflict justice and also looks into the different post conflict justice approaches adopted by African countries and their potential role in accountability and societal healing. The empirical cases of South Africa and Kenya are analysed in the study as practical examples of the application of post conflict justice approaches. The impact of the accountability mechanisms adopted is also discussed. The unique role that the African Union plays in fighting impunity in the continent is also discussed and the impact of positions taken by the continental body on accountability in post conflict countries is analysed. In the end the study seeks to establish the growing pattern in Africa in dealing with post conflict situations and recommendations are made in the final chapter on how to improve the general approach by Africa to eradicate the culture of impunity for serious crimes committed in the continent.

During this study, an attempt was made to explore the opinions and attitudes of members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) towards issues of diversity before, immediately after and three months after participating in diversity training workshops presented by the SAPS Training Division during 1997 in Port Elizabeth. The aim of this thesis was not to assess the diversity training itself, but to discover if the training, as currently presented, in any way influenced the attitudes of participants. In order to meet this goal, literature and empirical studies were conducted. The literature study sets the theoretical foundation pertaining to the history of the SAPS and the attitudes and prejudices of and diversity among SAPS members. During the empirical research phase, a non-probability purposive sampling procedure was adopted. Four of a range of diversity workshops presented by the Training Division of the SAPS during 1997 were selected for the purpose of this study. An internal SAPS process was used to nominate members to attend the workshops. The researcher requested the participants in each of the four workshops to complete a self-administered questionnaire before as well as after the workshop concerned. Immediately after each of the four workshops, a short interview was held with each attendee. To explore the stability of any change evident from responses on the questionnaires completed after the workshops, the attendees were again requested to complete the same questionnaire three months later. To increase the validity of any conclusion that attitudinal change was related to the workshop, a control group was used. This study has revealed that a cross-spectrum of SAPS members of both sexes and diverse racial backgrounds believe that various forms of discrimination exist within the SAPS. It confirmed that the diversity training presented by the SAPS Training Division is a useful instrument to heighten members' awareness of the different norms and customs of other cultural/ethnic groups and of the necessity that the SAPS should be constituted of a cross-spectrum of racial groups reflecting the South African society. Finally, based on the research findings, recommendations were made involving management and its supportive services and diversity training.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Relations in the Faculty of Humanities Department of International Relations, 2016 / A feud between the African Union (AU) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been dragging for a while now. The indictment of President Omar Hassan Ahmad alBashir of Sudan and President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy president William Ruto in Kenya altered the cosy relations between the two organisations. Firstly, the AU contends that the ICC cannot prosecute heads of states that have immunity under international law. Secondly, the ICC disturbs the ongoing peace processes with its investigations. The AU accused the ICC of selecting African states for prosecution; as a protracted form of imperialism by prevailing western powers. Withstanding, some of the AU member states that are party to the ICC have willingly signed up to its jurisdiction. Besides, the AU’s founding documents support the fight against grave atrocities. Nonetheless, the AU has failed dismally to live up to the principles it endorses- which tantamount to hypocrisy. The contradictory rhetoric of the AU towards the ICC is not exclusive to the AU, but to international organisations due to conflicting pressures in external environments. The paper explains this empirical phenomenon by applying Organised Hypocrisy (OH) to capture such contradictory behaviour prone to international organisations. / XL2018

This study was a comparative analysis of the highly structured legal systems of the state of Indiana and the United States of America and the unwritten legal systems of the Ashanti, Barotse, Buganda, and Nuer tribes of Africa. The purpose was to review the similarities and differences in the way in which those legal systems are structured, the way they function, and the scope of their impact on their respective societies.Complex societies have governmental entities which perform different functions in the legal system, but tribal societies tend to have people who perform multifunctional roles. The key is to observe the system to see what functions are being performed, and not to observe the system only to see if the same types of entities are performing the functions in simple societies as in complex societies.The “law is whatever is needed in a particular society. Dispute resolution must be accomplished, but the absence of a formal system does not mean the there is absence of law. / Department of Anthropology

In 1991 the Treaty enacting the African Economic Community (AEC)1 was signed by the African Heads of State and Government.2 The AEC aims to establish regional free markets that would then be transformed into a continent-wide single market in six subsequent stages enabling the free movement of persons, goods, services, and capital until 2025 at the latest.3 However, to make sure that the free movement of persons in Africa would not also become a "free flow of criminals", the installation of a common market will require intensified police and judicial co-operation, information exchange and external border controls. 1 Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community adopted by the Heads of State and Government of Member States of the Organisation of African Unity in Abuja, Nigeria, 3 June 1991. 2 Art. 6(1) Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community. 3 Arts. 4(2)(h) and 4(2)(i) Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community. Furthermore, the age of globalisation calls into question the traditional concepts of sovereignty. Nowadays individual states are often unable to supervise their complete territory and battle to guard their borders against unwanted goods, people and ideas. Many facets of globalisation - including fast technological development and social and economic interaction - encourage governments to cooperate in order to try to achieve objectives that, acting on their own, they may not believe they can accomplish. Or to express the same thought in its negative sense: to fight unwanted consequences of this development, acting on their own, the states may not be able to achieve. This means that sooner or later the African States will have to address the problem of how to develop a police and judicial regime in criminal matters in order to fight against organised transnational crime. The question therefore is not whether the African States should engage in police and judicial co-operation, but rather what form it should take. The aim of this master treatise is to define the cornerstones of a possible future adoption of a police and judicial regime for the African Union (AU). There are numerous police and judicial co-operations around the world of various types so to make the task more manageable this treaty looks at the European Union (EU) in some detail and uses it as an example or as a guideline to sketch out a possible development of a police and judicial co-operation within the AU. This is for the reason that the EU has succeeded in creating a sophisticated regime of police and judicial co-operation and thus serves as a model of how co-operation levels can be created, handled, and preserved. The EU also serves as an example of how certain obstacles can make co-operation difficult or even prevent efforts for an effective transnational police and judicial co-operation. However, the current EU is the result of the specific circumstances in which its Member States and organs have responded to the economic and political changes they have been faced with. The AU has to operate amidst a political setting and various other circumstances that are very different. As a result the police and judicial co-operation regime of the AU will be very different from the EU model. This treatise argues that due to the vast number of participating states in the AU and the AU's decision-making practice, the continental level is not an appropriate point of departure for the AU to adopt a police and judicial co-operation regime. Police and judicial co-operation within the AU will at first have to be pursued at a sub-regional level. The co-operation should start at the already subdivided Regional Economic Communities (RECs) established by the AEC. Only in time, if at all, will the sub-regional markets be prepared to merge into a continent-wide integration. This is why at the present time the AU will have to accept a mere supervising and stimulating part in pursuing the ultimate objective of developing a police and judicial co-operation on a continent-wide level. Furthermore, this treatise assesses that the huge number of economic, social, and political challenges impair the AU's action ability with the result that it will not be able to establish a supranational legal body comparable to that of the EU in the near future. Also, the African Heads of State and Government are too interested in keeping their sovereign powers to themselves. This is why in Africa integration is more likely to be achieved with an intergovernmental approach. Therefore, police and judicial co-operation should first be exercised by means of informal meetings of the Interior and Justice Ministers and any resulting acts should be classified as (traditional) public international law. This is not to imply that the AU has no role to play here, for said meetings will have to be coordinated and supervised. In order to do justice to its supervising role it is necessary to empower the organs of the AU. This treatise analyses that for the AU to establish an efficient institutional framework, it is extremely important that the Assembly's monopoly over proposing legislation and establishing new organs is changed. Consensus decisions between fifty-four Member States would in an optimal case be replaced by a system where no organ is in total control. Finally, this treatise emphasises the necessity to push ahead with the development of the regional free markets as envisioned by the AEC. Similar to the development in the EU, this will bring about new challenges in combating new types of transnational crimes. This treatise demonstrates that this challenge might bring the necessary momentum to formally introduce police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters, usually a high policy area, on the agenda of the AU. In conclusion, this treatise shows that co-operation in such a sensitive area as security policy first and foremost needs a sufficient amount of trust between the decision makers of the involved states. To develop this necessary trust and the processes building upon this, this treatise argues that a regular meeting between the Interior and Justice Ministers, either inside or outside the framework of the AU, should be launched. Through these meetings the AU could gradually develop a platform for discussion in the area of criminal law and thereby slowly intensify its information exchange and operational co-operation. The history of the EU has shown that the development of a supranational legal system first and foremost requires mutual trust in each other's respective legal systems. Trust is generated by communication in an informal atmosphere. Therefore, this treatise argues that a colloquial intergovernmental co-operation within the field of criminal law is the correct approach for the AU to develop a police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters.

The thesis focused on how the advent of children's rights, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has impacted on the subject of juvenile justice and embarked on a practical examination of law reform in this regard in an African context. The focus was placed on a number of African countries that have embarked on or completed child law reform in the aftermath of ratification of the CRC. The case studies in this thesis were Ghana (1998-2003), Kenya (1993-2001), Namibia (1994 to date), Lesotho (2003 to date), South Africa (1997 to date) and Uganda (1992-1996).

The thesis focused on how the advent of children's rights, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has impacted on the subject of juvenile justice and embarked on a practical examination of law reform in this regard in an African context. The focus was placed on a number of African countries that have embarked on or completed child law reform in the aftermath of ratification of the CRC. The case studies in this thesis were Ghana (1998-2003), Kenya (1993-2001), Namibia (1994 to date), Lesotho (2003 to date), South Africa (1997 to date) and Uganda (1992-1996).

The present study experimentally examined the effect(s) of aversive racism on mock legal decisions made by university students. The experiment adopted a 3 (Evidence quality: low, ambiguous or high) x 2 (race stereotype crime: black vs. white) x 2 (Defendant race: black vs. white) between subjects design, in which 785 black, white, Indian and coloured participants were asked to judge legal cases. The legal vignettes were piloted to ensure that low, ambiguous and high evidence conditions were clearly represented, and that the white stereotype and black stereotype crimes chosen for the research were appropriate. Participants were each given two vignettes and used 10-point scales to judge a) the guilt or innocence of the defendant(s) and b) the sentence they would recommend for the defendant(s) should they be found guilty by a court of law. Our prediction that we would find evidence for the classic aversive racism effect in this sample was not supported, and no evidence of racial bias was found. Interestingly, white participants judged the guilt of defendants more leniently than all other race groups. These results are discussed and recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

The history of the criminal justice system in South Africa, in the last decade is a history dominated by the desire for change and transformation. It will be remembered that we are talking of a system which, in the past, formed part of the State apparatus of a minority government which included racist elements and highly restrictive legal regime in dealing with communities, crime and criminals. The criminal justice system is constituted by four core departments, namely: the South African Police Services; Department of Justice, Correctional Services and Welfare. The argument is whether the volunteers from the community should be involved at all in the fight against crime or not. Some people feel that a system· of justice should be controlled by professionals, who are accountable for their decisions, namely: the Police, Justice, and Correctional Services. However, the research revealed that a system which excludes the community from participating, will render itself ineffective and open to abuse. This topic should be further researched within each department in the criminal justice system in order to explore possibilities of attracting volunteers in the transformation of their respective departments. / Penology / D.Litt. et Phil. (Penology)

The situation of prisons in Africa has been of concern to practitioners in the criminal justice system, researchers, policy makers, the government and even international organizations. Likewise, is the challenge of not having adequate information about prison system in Africa. In addition, most African countries are signatories to international treaties and convention regarding the treatment of prisoners, to what extent are prisons in Africa complying with the provisions and recommendation of such treaties and conventions. This study was therefore designed to explore the prison system in Africa countries. As part of its objectives the study explored the prison condition in countries in Africa as exemplified by the physical structure of the prison buildings; living conditions with regards to overcrowding, medical care, separation of categories, food, sanitation, beds and beddings, administration and independent monitoring. Furthermore, the treatment and prison conditions of pre- trial detainees were also considered. Similarly, this thesis evaluated the treatment and prison conditions of prisoners with special needs. This category of prisoners include prisoners with mental health care needs, prisoners with disabilities, foreign national prisoners, older prisoners, prisoners on the death row and prisoners living with HIV/AIDS. The conditions and treatment of women prisoners, pregnant women prisoners, and babies living with their mothers in prison were also discussed. The Nelson Mandela Rules, Kampala and Luanda declarations were employed as a bench mark to ascertain whether the treatment and conditions in prisons in Africa meet up to international standards. The study adopted a qualitative approach of inquiry using literature search as mode of inquiry. Data for the study was obtained from books, reports from international organisations such as United Nations, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Penal Reform International, Amnesty International, international conventions and treaties among others, journals (Local, Africa and International), reports from selected countries, government legislations, policies, Acts, previous studies on prison system, web based information and national data. The review of literature with regards to physical structure revealed that most prisons in African countries do not meet international standards pertaining to the issue of physical structure as most prison building are dilapidated and in bad conditions. The study further revealed that the prisons and treatment of prisoners in African prison do not meet international standards. In specific terms, most of the prisons in countries in Africa are overcrowded; most prisons are also characterized by inadequate medical care with lack of facilities, medical personnel and medications. To a large extent most prisons do not meet international standards with reference to separation of categories as most prisons in countries in Africa lock up awaiting trial persons with convicted persons, minor offenders with adult but in most cases women are separated from men. The food situation in most prisons in countries in Africa did not meet international standards in quantity and nutritional value. The finding of the study indicated that the sanitary conditions in most prisons in countries in Africa is in very poor condition which could lead to an outbreak of diseases, this too did not meet international standards. Most prisons in countries in Africa are typified by lack of beds and beddings, prisoners in some prisons sleep on bare floors while some sleep standing while others sleep in shifts. This condition does not meet international standards. With regards to administration it was equally revealed that the record keeping of most prisons in countries in Africa is inadequate, most prisons do not have an ombudsman where prisoners could lodge their complaints while corruption seem to also be rife. This do not meet international standards as well. However, on a good note, most prisons in countries in Africa do permit independent observers such as NGOs, human rights organisations and international organization to have access to the prisons Furthermore, literature search disclosed that the population of awaiting trial person in prisons in Africa is very high when compared to the total prison population and that some countries in Africa are among countries in the world with highest number of pre - trial detainees. The treatment and living conditions of pre - trial detainees in most prisons in African countries do not meet international standards as they are locked in overcrowded cells, often locked up with convicted persons, no legal representation and having to stay longer that the stipulates without being charged to court. The thesis also conducted literature search on prisoners with special needs and the study point out that in each of the categories, prisons in countries in African countries do not meet international standards. For instance, there are no provisions to meet the mental health care needs of prisoners as there are no mental health practitioners, no facilities and no screening is conducted in most prisons. Similarly, there are no facilities to assist prisoners living with physical disabilities as well as older prisoners. The situation with foreign national prisoners are not different as there are no translation of prison materials that could make them adjust well to prison life, in some cases their consular are not contacted that they are in prison. With regards to prisoners on the death row, their conditions did not meet international standards as they are locked up in solitary confinement for most part of the day and their cells are often dirty with inadequate food and medical care. Some of this category of prisoners have been on the death row for as long as twenty years. For prisoners living with HIV/AIDS their treatment and condition does not met international standards as there are not treatment of any kind neither is there any form of screening conducted for inmates. For women prisoners, the treatment and conditions do not meet international standards as most prisons were not designed with women in mind. The living condition is unsanitary, unhygienic exemplified with inadequate toilet and bathroom facilities as well as no supply of peculiar needs of women such as sanitary towels. Review of literature equally indicates that there is no special treatment given to pregnant women prisoners. For children living with their mothers in prison, their treatment does not meet international standards as there is no special provision made for them, they share food with their mothers, some are locked up with their mothers for hours in overcrowded cells. Based on the finding of this study, some recommendations were made. These include the need to conduct more studies on prisons in countries in Africa, the need to consider reviewing the indigenous methods of treatment of offenders before the advent of colonial masters, need for a synergy amongst all practitioners in the criminal justice. Other recommendations are that there should be more advocacy on the prison conditions, need to establish a special trust fund, involve the private sector as well as professional bodies and to professionalize corrections management / Corrections Management / Ph. D. (Criminal Justice System)