For the latest instalment in our ongoing series profiling key partner organisations in IRLI's global network, we caught up with Chipiliro Lulanga about his role as a Reprieve fellow in Malawi. Chipiliro shares his experience to date, which includes nine years working on death penalty cases and advocating for fair trials, whilst collaborating with organisations like IRLI to improve justice and human rights conditions.
Chipiliro Lulanga, Reprieve fellow, based in Zomba, Malawi
Firstly, can you introduce yourself?
My Name is Chipiliro Lulanga. I reside in Zomba, Malawi’s old capital. I am a legal practitioner and human rights advocate and I work for the NGO, Reprieve, where I'm currently a fellow.
How long have you been at Reprieve?
I have been at Reprieve for about nine years now. At first I worked as a volunteer in the Malawi Resentencing Project that Reprieve was leading together with the Malawi Human Rights Commission. I then started working as an intern and following the completion of my LLB studies, I was recruited as a fellow.
What was your experience before the Reprieve?
Before I joined Reprieve I was working as a secondary school teacher under the Ministry of Education. I was also doing some part-time work as an enumerator and a translator with a research-based organisation called Invest in Knowledge. I believe this is where I learnt how to interact with people from different backgrounds, especially those in difficult circumstances, and I developed my interviewing skills, engaging with people respectfully whilst seeking very important information from them.
Chipiliro Lulanga at Godfrey Thawe's release.
There is much more awareness now of the fundamental problems with the death penalty, and we continue to see lawmakers express their support for abolition, which we hope they will achieve soon."
Can you describe your current role? What are your main responsibilities?
My current role is very multifaceted. I spend the majority of my time supporting clients who are bringing death penalty cases for appeal to the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal. This includes interviewing clients, specifically conducting interviews with family and community members through village mitigation investigations, identifying relevant legal remedies and developing strategy, making applications for appeal, arguing a client’s case at both the High Court and the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal, and much more!
In addition to these tasks, I also help in coordinating law reform strategies with other stakeholders, these include seeking to improve prison conditions, eliminating torture and torture-induced confessions, and the abolishment of the death penalty.
Please talk through some of the work Reprieve has done? (before and now)
Most significantly, in collaboration with many stakeholders led by MHRC, we managed to successfully have about 170 people released from death row through the Kafantayeni resentencing project. The majority of them were released immediately due to the very long time they had already served in prison, whilst a few were given a sentence that required them to stay for additional years in prison. Most importantly, there were no death sentences in the case. Following this, Reprieve and LAB successfully supported all remaining people on death row to apply for pardons. This means there is now no one on death row in Malawi!
Reprieve also led the charge on death penalty abolition advocacy. Although the death penalty has not yet been abolished, we can already see the impact of the advocacy in the changes to the public discourse. There is much more awareness now of the fundamental problems with the death penalty, and we continue to see lawmakers express their support for abolition, which we hope they will achieve soon.
Reprieve has been instrumental in supporting capacity building and experience sharing for justice sector stakeholders. We have been conducting training in mental health, mitigation investigations, oral advocacy and more with legal aid lawyers. Further to that, Reprieve has also been important in advocacy for the reformation of the law on torture with a wide variety of justice sector stakeholders. We have also supported mentorship and experience sharing between mental health clinicians in Malawi with international counterparts.
Chipiliro Lulanga visiting a client's family.
Together with other stakeholders, led by IRLI and CHREAA, we are also advocating for the reformation of the Prison Act to the Correctional Services Act. We believe that reformation of the legislation would ensure that prisoners are held under conditions that are well befitting for human beings, which sadly is not the case now."
What are the main human rights issues you are currently working on?
Our main focus now is trying to make sure that some of our clients are able to enjoy their right to a fair trial including the right to appeal. In doing this, we make sure that clients are accorded the right to appeal even though their right to do this has been limited by statute. We are also trying to eliminate torture of any kind although our main focus is on clients who are facing the death penalty. Together with other stakeholders, led by IRLI and CHREAA, we are also advocating for the reformation of the Prison Act to the Correctional Services Act. We believe that reformation of the legislation would ensure that prisoners are held under conditions that are well befitting for human beings, which sadly is not the case now.
How do you personally manage the pressure and responsibilities of working in a human rights context?
The situation is tricky. My understanding is that human rights are universal, inalienable, indivisible, interconnected and non-discriminatory. The context which I am working in includes people who do not really understand human rights as a whole. Their support or understanding of human rights is usually biased. For example, some people do not really understand why a murder suspect should be accorded the right to a fair trial despite the fact that the right to a fair trial is enshrined under the Constitution of the Republic. We have people who don’t see any problem with mob justice because they think the courts have not been good enough in dispersing justice. Then we have the issue with the overburdened justice system, which is often too slow in dispersing justice. All these lead to difficulties in balancing the interest of the people we serve and can make our work, at times, very hard.
Nocks Mwenibundu and Chipiliro Lulanga during a client visit
Can you talk us through the relationship between IRLI and Reprieve? How have you worked on the partnership?
Reprieve and IRLI are long time partners. Our work is complementary – we share the same goals, and use our distinct areas of expertise to achieve these goals for the greatest number of people. For example, we are keenly concerned about prisoner wellbeing and support efforts to improve individual client’s lives, as well as seeking broader policy reform. We are also very keen to see improvement in the human rights framework in Malawi. To this end, we have been very grateful for support from IRLI in the death penalty abolition advocacy, and for IRLI’s leadership of the group of CSOs seeking to eliminate torture in Malawi’s jails and prisons. We also work together to try to make sure that prison conditions are better as well as organising trainings for stakeholders in an attempt to eliminate various kinds of torture to people in prisons and those under police custody or awaiting trial.
What’s in store for the future at Reprieve? Are there any specific programmes or initiatives planned?
Reprieve continues to represent underprivileged people who are facing the death penalty in Malawi, and we hope to achieve access to justice for all those who were formerly sentenced to death, as well as to have the death penalty abolished in Malawi to ensure no one else has to endure this punishment. We are supporting 24 appeals from death sentences, and one from a term of years sentence. We are also working together with the Legal Aid Bureau to bring these cases to the MSCA, and hope to continue supporting LAB with capital cases and mitigation investigations in future.
We also hope to continue to facilitate support for important advocacy efforts, including advocacy to abolish the death penalty at law, to reform and improve prison conditions, and to eliminate torture in the criminal justice context.
Globally, Reprieve plans to continue to share the best practice that has been developed in Malawi with jurisdictions around the world that are facing similar challenges with capital sentencing. We will continue to facilitate experience sharing between Malawian experts and their counterparts in Africa, Asia, and the US, with the aim of bringing all of these relationships in line with best practice standards that, in many cases, were developed and implemented first in Malawi.
See more at Reprieve's website.
You can also follow Reprieve on LinkedIn.