Travel and Learning Award for Marozane Spamers
Supporting Marozane to attend the International Academy of Law and Mental Health Conference in 2022 in Lyon, France.
Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award
Marozane’s plan
Marozane will use the Travel and Learning Award to attend the International Academy of Law and Mental Health Conference from 3-8 July 2022 in Lyon, France. She will present a paper, “Mental Health and Criminal Justice in New Zealand: A Human Rights Critique”, which will build on the findings of the 2018 Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction in New Zealand. The Inquiry recognised that a human rights-based approach to mental health care provision is required and developed wide-ranging recommendations for a better mental health system. The Inquiry identified the prison population as disproportionately at risk of unmet mental health needs, but did not delve into a review of mental health in the broader criminal justice system. Marozane’s paper will identify selected areas of policy and practice relating to mental health in criminal law and sentencing, policing, and corrections in need of reform to prevent potential human rights abuses and the miscarriage of justice.
About Marozane
Dr Marozane Spamers is a lecturer in Criminal Justice at the University of Canterbury where she teaches in core subjects of the Bachelor of Criminal Justice. Her research interests are in the field of mental health and criminal justice, drawing on criminal law, criminology, and human rights law. She takes a multidisciplinary approach to research, based on the view that law does not operate in a vacuum and that the legitimacy of the criminal justice system can only be ensured if legislation and policy is evidence-based. She is particularly invested in determining how criminal justice policy can be utilised to ensure that the human rights of mentally ill persons are protected while achieving the goals of the criminal justice system.
Marozane’s research approach is informed by her academic background. She holds an LLD on mental health law from the University of Pretoria (and an LLB and LLM in Criminal law), completed an MPhil in Criminological Research as a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Cambridge, and has attended summer schools on criminal law and human rights at the Venice Academy of Human Rights and Åbo Akademi University in Finland. Before immigrating to New Zealand with her young family, Marozane lectured on Constitutional law, Human Rights and Administrative law at the University of Limpopo in South Africa.
Grant Amount
$5,600 in 2022
“The opportunity to disseminate my research findings on such a prominent stage, to gain knowledge from international experts in law and mental health, apply lessons learned globally to our unique domestic problems, and to make connections with colleagues from universities worldwide will be invaluable to my development as early career academic working to make a difference in the criminal justice system in Aotearoa.”
– Marozane Spamers