Justice Sector and the Rule of Law - AfriMAP

Since 1996, the Public Service Act has required all public service institutions to abide by theprinciple of non-discrimination. However, this obligation is not restated in the Police Act. This isone of the weaknesses of the act that the Police Bill proposed by the Law Commission addresses.Although the bill does not mention non-discrimination expressly, it does so by implication in theprovision that one of the obligations of the service is the protection of ‘fundamental freedomsand rights of individuals’ 369 since one of the human rights that the Constitution expressly guaranteesis that of every person not to be discriminated against. 370There is evidence to suggest that, in practice, police treat members of certain sections ofthe population less favourably than others. For example, according to the Malawi chapter of theWomen and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust (WLSA), women are treatedless favourably than men when they seek police intervention, particularly where they are complainingof domestic violence. 371The police have also been accused of not providing equal protection to members and supportersof the party in power and those affiliated to opposition parties. A research study of publicperceptions of the police conducted by the Centre for Social Research of the University of Malawiin 1998 found that to a significant extent, the members of the public perceived the police to bepolitically biased. 372 The perception appears to have persisted; in 2004, the EU Observer Missionto the 2004 elections found that the police were widely perceived to be close to the ruling party.The police were also perceived to provide preferential treatment at the expense of the poor. 373There is no readily available evidence to indicate definitively whether the police continue tobe perceived to be, or are, biased against particular vulnerable groups. The recent establishment ofVictim Support Units should help to improve support provided to victims of crime who belong tovulnerable groups. For a long time, the government’s failure to enact legislation aimed at improvingthe protection of vulnerable people within the home, especially women and children, had limitedthe potential for implementing any strategy for action. In April 2006, the Prevention of DomesticViolence Act was finally enacted. 374 This is an important step forward, even though some civil societyand professional organisations have criticised the act for failing to take sufficient account of Malawi’scultural realities and imposing unrealistic penalties on perpetrators of domestic violence. 375