Holistic juvenile justice centre: the design of a one-stop juvenile centre in Windhoek, Namibia
- Authors: Saunders, Dylan
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Juvenile detention homes -- Namibia -- Windhoek -- Designs and plans Juvenile detention homes -- Buildings, structures, etc..
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MArch
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/39144 , vital:35048
- Description: The promotion and protection of children's rights has since independence been a 'political commitment within the country to improve the situation of children1.Namibia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, whilst the Child Care and Protection Bill has been submitted to the Cabinet Committee on Legislation in 20102. Both seek to protect the rights of the child through a holistic approach. However, scepticism and uncertainty still pervades amongst the involved professional fields3. This can be attributed to the history of war and apartheid in Namibia, as well as social pressures of poverty and colonial legislation. Despite the adoption of national legislation respecting children's rights, difficulties in implementing the required procedural framework have placed Namibia at odds with international precedent4. In contrast, South Africa has developed specialised One-Stop Youth Justice Centres intended to promote the efficient operation of the juvenile legal system as part of promoting the rights of children5. Relying on inter-departmental cooperation, these centres are able to render comprehensive services to children in conflict with the law. Children are guided through the legal process after their arrest with the intended result of successful rehabilitation and integration into society. The main goal is to ensure that children are kept out of the conventional criminal justice system and only if rehabilitation has failed, will a child be sent to prison where a traditional sentence will be served. To better effect this these centres are to be located in residential areas. In light of international practises, courthouses are increasingly developing as specialised buildings tailored to the provision of the necessary services relevant to a particular type of civic or criminal offense6. Drawing a parallel to this, One-Stop Centres do not accommodate adult offenders, these centres are focussed on providing the necessary services to juvenile offenders and witnesses and victims of crimes committed by juveniles. This type of 'childfriendly' one-stop approach has unfortunately not permeated into the practices of the Namibian criminal justice system7. It is within this context that the design treatise has been investigated.
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- Date Issued: 2012
The impact of the protection of state information bill on media freedom in South Africa
- Authors: Jasson Da Costa, Wendy Avril
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Freedom of the press -- South Africa -- History , Democracy -- South Africa , South Africa -- Press, History , Press and politics -- South Africa -- History -- 1994-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MPhil
- Identifier: vital:8269 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1014619
- Description: This thesis considers the impact which the Protection of State Information Bill will have on media freedom in South Africa. During apartheid, draconian laws prevented the media from reporting freely, and newspapers as well as the broadcast media were heavily censored. When the country became a democracy in 1994, the political grip on the media faded, and a new era of press freedom began. However, the Protection of State Information Bill is seen as a direct threat to that freedom. The Bill, also known as the Secrecy Bill, will classify state-related information and censor the media who make public or are found to be in possession of, classified information. For journalists this means that the way in which they report and what they report will be severely restricted. The Bill will also impact on the willingness of whistleblowers to come to the fore. This study looks at the importance of a free press, at how the Secrecy Bill evolved, and how opposition parties and civil society set about opposing it. It will examine democracy and its relationship with a free press, and do a policy analysis of the Bill. It will also look at how civil society organisations came together to oppose the Bill, and some of the changes which came about as a result of this opposition.
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- Date Issued: 2012