New guidelines to empower prosecutors, says DPP
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mary Kachale says the newly-launched prosecution guidelines on nuisance-related offenses empowers prosecutors to exercise professionalism in their duties .
Nuisance-related offenses include common nuisance, idle and disorderly offences, and conduct likely to cause breach of peace.
Kachale was speaking when she launched the guidelines on Friday in Lilongwe following collaborative work with Centre for Human Rights, Education, Advice and Assistance (Chreaa) to produce them.
The DPP observed that lay prosecutors are often blamed for the way they do their work but they do not always have access to new legislation and other resources.
She said: “These guidelines have been issued because we as prosecutors, are expected to discharge our duties with professionalism, skill and integrity and to operate within the framework of defined and clear prosecution policy guidelines.”
Kachale advised prosecutors to always be mindful of the human rights of suspects, victims, witnesses and the accused persons as they carry out their duties.
On her part, Chreaa deputy executive director Chikondi Chijozi noted that the guidelines would also help to protect the rights of the offenders as law enforcers still abuse offenders.
“We needed guidelines to ensure that while the laws are being enforced and implemented by the police, the [prosecutors] should not be violating human rights in the process. So, for us the guidelines on nuisance-related offenses are very important because they will not only help the police deal with the offenses but also prevent violation of human rights,” she explained.
In 2013, Chreaa conducted research on how the nuisance-related offences affect certain types of groups in society, focusing on sex workers. They found that over 80 percent of sex workers were being abused by the police, with some sex-workers being raped, while others would have their money confiscated by the law enforcers.
The findings of that project led to another project that aimed at decriminalising vagrancy offences in the country, and Chreaa has focused on that over the years.
