Browsing by Subject "postcolonial studies"

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    Non-state forms of conflict resolution: opportunities for improving criminal justice a case study of community courts in Mozambique
    (2022) Lorizzo, Concetta; Amien, Waheeda
    The Mozambican criminal justice system faces two main challenges, namely lack of access to justice for all and deplorable prison conditions. Judicial courts are distant and expensive; legal terminology is incomprehensible to the majority of people; and prisons are overcrowded. Mozambicans continue to rely on different normative systems, other than state justice, to resolve their disputes. Recognised mainly as informal, these non-state mechanisms have always been considered as closer, cheaper and faster than judicial courts. However, the literature on legal pluralism and the state has historically ignored the role that they play in criminal justice. Given this background, the thesis examines the limitations of legal pluralism and how the past shaped and continues to shape the particular relationship of the state with community courts in relation to criminal justice. The study makes use of materials derived from exploratory work in the Mozambican capital city of Maputo, including focus group discussions, individual interviews, access to case files, and various other empirical observations. The thesis analyses the functioning of community courts. The discourses and practices on criminal justice of these courts are most usually seen as situated within Eurocentric dominant political discourses about the nature of access to justice and punishment. Through a postcolonial analysis, however, the thesis aims at identifying community courts as forms of local knowledge; it explores the legal and practical obstacles and opportunities that community courts provide to improve access to criminal justice for petty crimes and ultimately their impact on the condition of prisons. The thesis shows that the revision of the community courts' law presents an opportunity to broaden the competence of the courts to include criminal cases punishable with imprisonment up to three years. Because of this, petty crimes would go through the state criminal justice system and more cases would be resolved at the community level. Community courts are trusted by the people and make use of a form of restorative justice. They reach decisions through mediation; assess the socioeconomic causes of a case; involve families and communities when needed; and apply alternatives to imprisonment. A shift of the state's mainstream attitude to community courts in relation to criminal justice is now needed – a move away from Eurocentric discourse and towards the recognition, in practice, of local knowledge.
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    (Un)-African: queering South Africas approach to SOGI rights
    (2022) Berry, Neil Alexander; Smith, Karen
    This study uses Queer Theory to explore the inconsistencies in South Africa's approach to the international protection of people of non-normative sexual orientations and gender identities (SOGI). It seeks to understand why South Africa's support for SOGI rights in the international system has been inconsistent, by answering the following question: How can we understand South Africa's inconsistent approach to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) rights in the United Nations using Queer Theory? Using queer critical discourse analysis and Weber's queer logics of statecraft (Weber, 2016a; 2016b), SOGI rights discourses were studied at three levels. Firstly, the genesis of SOGI rights adoption within the post-apartheid South African policy and legislative frameworks. Secondly, providing contextual background, across the African continent since 1994. Thirdly, within dedicated SOGI debates at the UN General Assembly and UN Human Rights Council since 2011, focussing on South African and African Group contributions. This analysis determined that SOGI rights have been challenged by claims of cultural, historical and religious traditions, which on the African continent have been framed as un-African and a rejection of neocolonialism from the global North. Despite the fallacy of this un-African claim, it has impacted on South Africa as it sought to re-establish its Africanness and anti-neocolonial credentials whilst also promoting its moral leadership on human rights. It has further been established that the South African approach to SOGI rights was informed by the demands of local rather than international SOGI rights NGOs. This approach has disappointed those who anticipate the Western model of SOGI rights promotion, which South Africa has critiqued for its coercive and counter-productive punitive measures. By using Queer Theory, this study concluded that South Africa's identity can be understood beyond monolithic binaries, that South Africa's support for SOGI rights in the UN has endeavoured to find a balance between the competing aims of SOGI rights and African solidarity by presenting itself as an African and/or un-African state. This study contributes to the emerging Queer Theory literature within International Relations and to literature on queer African sexualities and genders, human rights, and foreign policy.