Malawi Bail Project Information

Malawi Bail Project (MBP) is a UK Registered CIO (No. 1177119) that funds and delivers access to justice initiatives and activities in Malawi (www.malawibailproject.com). We have three core objectives: (i) legal empowerment through community education (ii) capacity building of professionals in the criminal justice system (iii) the promotion of rehabilitation of ex-prisoners. MBP delivers these aims in partnership with Malawian NGO, the Centre for Human Rights, Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA - www.chreaa.org). Prisons throughout Malawi are severely overcrowded. At Chichiri Prison, one of the largest prisons in Malawi, cells built to hold 80 people currently hold over 200 prisoners. Overcrowding means the already limited prison budget cannot provide adequate nutrition, sanitation or health care for inmates, which contributes to the spread of infectious disease and in many cases death. This crisis is, in part, due to the large numbers of people (currently around 6,000) imprisoned on remand awaiting trial. Due to the lack of legal aid lawyers in Malawi, there are currently only around 20 practicing in the whole country, the majority of those arrested are brought to court without any legal representation and as a result, are unaware of the right to bail and how or when to exercise this right. Consequently, bail applications are rarely made at the first court appearance and thousands of Malawians are arbitrarily detained for months or years, in violation of domestic, regional and international human rights instruments.