A Comparative Study of Offenders’ Rights to Rehabilitation in South African and the Democratic Republic of Congo Prison Systems
| dc.contributor.author | Bajika, Benabiabu Mamie | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-03-14T09:34:32Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-03-14T09:34:32Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019 | |
| dc.description | A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the academic requirements for the degree of Master of Laws in the Department of Laws in the Faculty of Faculty of Commerce, Administration and Law, University of Zululand, 2019 | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | This study analyses the protection and enforcement of offenders’ rights to rehabilitation in South African and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) prison systems. These two jurisdictions signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as the first legally binding instrument imposing states members to brand their prisons as reformatories and social rehabilitation institutes. The analysis first, is worrisome to incarcerate offenders in the South African and DRC prison systems because they will destroy them instead of being rehabilitated. Second, the two countries are plagued by the rate of recidivism while rehabilitation is the right of offenders. The objective of this study is to investigate the extent to which the two countries respect, protect, and fulfil the right to rehabilitation as required by their international, regional norms and standards, and provide decision-makers with tools to improve the rehabilitation in the two jurisdictions. For this study, the legal elements of offenders’ right to rehabilitation comprised the right to self-determination, religion, education, work, cultural activity, vocational and training programmes, pre-release programmes, psychiatric programmes, psychological programmes, social work programmes, teacher, dignity, equality, discrimination, freedom from torture, freedom from being treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way, healthcare, food and water, and the right to clothing and bedding. To remedy the problem, the study was desktop research that used primary and secondary sources of data for contextual insight and critical commentary. Among the findings, the study found that the right to rehabilitation in the two jurisdictions is violated to the extent that offenders could be ill-treated and overcrowding is still unavoidable. Unlike the DRC government, which abandoned its prisons since the wrong process of Zairianization or Nationalisation, in other words, the South African government, however, respects, protects and fulfils the extent that courts can intervene in favour of offenders. DRC NGOs also assist offenders with what they can to rehabilitated offenders if they consider offenders as equal without discrimination to comply with international obligations. There still is non-compliance in xi fulfilling the right to rehabilitation from the DRC government’s side. Recommendations from the study are that both countries should abide by their obligations as clarified in the international and regional treaties regarding the right to rehabilitation. Regarding overcrowding, South African courts must consider the private interest of the applicant requesting his or her achievement while incarcerated to be considered as “highly meritorious” services and be granted a special remission of sentence. The victim or his or her relative, however, should also be implicated in this process. The DRC government, in turn, has two options: it either privatises its prisons or remedies the challenge of arbitrary arrest. Furthermore, South Africa should learn lessons from the DRC regarding the matter of nationalisation, and the DRC should learn lessons from South Africa in putting the right to rehabilitation at the centre within its prison systems while amending its OrdinanceLaw No 344 of 17 September 1965 governing the prison systems to make it clear concerning matters of rehabilitation, as per the South African Correctional Act 111 of 1998 and the 2005 South African White Paper on Correctional Services and align it with international treaties. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10530/2141 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | University of Zululand | en_US |
| dc.subject | human rights | en_US |
| dc.subject | right to rehabilitation | en_US |
| dc.subject | nternational norms and standards | en_US |
| dc.subject | offenders | en_US |
| dc.title | A Comparative Study of Offenders’ Rights to Rehabilitation in South African and the Democratic Republic of Congo Prison Systems | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
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