Prisoners on remand are those who have been arrested, have been refused or cannot afford bail, and are awaiting the start or completion of their trial. One third of the country’s total prison population are on remand. Excessively long detention and the conditions in which awaiting trial prisoners are kept impacts profoundly on their psycho-social […]
Are South African political actors too quick to ask the country’s judges to referee their disputes? Ordinarily, in a stable and orderly democracy, it is highly desirable that people, and the parties and factions that they constitute, should ‘go the legal route’ rather than settle their differences by force, or bribery, or by any of the myriad other underhand methods that are typically associated with the world of politics.
On 9th July, 180 civil society groups active in the field of migration issued a joint statement ahead of the sixth and final round of discussions on the Global Compact on Migration (GCM), due to take place in New York. This followed 18 months of negotiation stressing the need for states to adopt a comprehensive approach to human mobility and for enhanced co-operation globally. It is interesting to note that the bulk of the issues raised in the statement by the 180 organisations have a strong resonance with the official Roman Catholic position.
Recently Pope Francis said, “We should promote the integral human development of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.” A number of the articles in this Digest spell out the implications of this challenge. So far this year, approximately 30 000 people attempted to reach Europe by sea. 771 have drowned in the process.
African CPLO Conference report
Wednesday 20th June marked World Refugee Day for 2018. Recent reports have indicated that there were 68.5m refugees across the world at the end of 2017, 2.9m more than at the end of 2016.
South Africa’s municipal finances are in a mess. This was confirmed by the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) when he released the 2016-17 audit results for local government.
An independent police watchdog organisation is a vital factor in ensuring that a nation’s police service carries out its duties professionally, ethically and constitutionally. This not only helps to maintain public trust and confidence in the police, it also protects individual police officers, and the police service as a whole, from unwarranted and malicious attacks.
Although the Catholic Church, along with most mainstream Christian denominations, does not embrace the practice of polygamous marriage, we fully recognize that it is a common form of marriage in our country. Furthermore, we have long been aware that aspects of polygamous marriages discriminate unfairly against women. This has now been highlighted by the judgment of the Constitutional Court which has prompted the current amendments.
Throughout its history, the Catholic Church has upheld the ideal of the ‘just wage’: an amount sufficient for the worker’s own support and for that of his/her family, with proper provision made for old age and for emergencies.
