AFSC AND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON PENAL ABOLITION
Laura Magnani, Assistant Regional Director for Justice and Youth Programs, Oakland CA
The 10th International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA) met in Lagos, Nigeria, in August 2002. It was hosted by Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action in Nigeria. The AFSC has been a part of the group from its inception over 20 years ago.
The conference creates an opportunity for groups around the world to gather, learn from each others' histories, and discuss different strategies. In countries with relatively new constitutions, or where legal structures are being created for the first time, there have been presentations of papers, such as "Penal Abolition vs. Penal Reform," "African Models of Transformative Justice," and "Intersect-ionality of Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Justice System," which raise questions about how to develop just structures and procedure.
Unfortunately, AFSC was not able to send a representative this year, but it did submit a paper entitled "A New Justice Paradigm," which attempts to contextualize criminal justice issues within a framework of social, racial, and economic justice. The paper was read at the conference.
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