The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) is deeply concerned by the human rights situation in Zambia, YALI has noticed in the recent past the increased human rights violations especially by those who perceived not to be pro PF and most the citizen’s that suffered these violations are mainly members of the opposition and civil society.
On 31st May 2013 members of church and civil society where attacked at Matero BIGOCA church this because the perceived PF carders didn’t agree with the prayers that was being held on the removal of subsidies, recently opposition leaders from FDD, UPND, MMD and NAREP have either been harassed or blocked conducting their meetings especially when they are not being conducted in Lusaka.
[pullquote]What kind of law is this that is only applied one side?[/pullquote]
This is an assault on our democracy and a direct violation on our human rights and fundamental freedoms granted by our Republic Constitution which is the supreme law of the Zambia. One wonders why is it that when leaders from the ruling party are moving around Zambia there no restrictions made by the police and but if it the opposition there will so may restrictions and sometimes leaders of opposition parties are either arrested or taken in for questioning? What kind of law is this that is only applied one side? Are opposition leaders and members of CSOs not Zambians? Is it that people from the ruling party are more Zambians that the rest of the populous and have special rights that other Zambians don’t have? The Constitution of Zambia provides for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all Zambians and not only those from the ruling party.
Part Three of the Constitution of Zambia provides for Human rights and fundamental rights, Article 21 (1) provides that “Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of assembly and association, that is to say, his right to assemble freely and associate with other persons and in particular to form or belong to any political party, trade union or other association for the protection of his interests.” While Article 22 (1) provides that, 1) Subject to the other provision of this Article and except in accordance with any other written law, no citizen shall be deprived of his freedom of movement, and for the purposes of this Article freedom of movement means –
(a) The right to move freely throughout Zambia: (b) the right to reside in any part of Zambia; and (c) the right to leave Zambia and to return to Zambia.
The harassment of radio stations and journalist deprives our citizen’s to have access to well researched and credible information. YALI has noticed the trend by our political leaders want to harass our journalists and media houses, this trend is most unfortunate it stifles innovation and investigative journalism in our country the continued threating of these media houses makes accountability and transparency unattainable. YALI has also noted with great sadness the continued harassment of citizens and political players who appear on certain radio stations, one of the opposition leaders had to use the roof to exist the radio station at Sun Radio station on the copperbelt, this because carders armed with all sorts of weapons were waiting for attack him. This most unfortunate this is the kind barbarisms that this country cannot accept and YALI condemns such acts in the strong terms possible.
One should understand that people have different backgrounds and ideologies and it is quite difficult for them to think in a similar manner. Studies have shown that even identical twins can never think the same, who are different political parties to think the same? They might think in similar way in same matters but not in all matters, this means that people are bound to disagree at one point but this it does not mean people should use pangas and other violent tools to solve their difference, dialogue is the best recipe to resolve matters, Zambians have never know this kind of behavior and it should not be tolerated by all well-meaning Zambians.
Article 20 (1) of the Constitution of Zambia states that, “Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to say, freedom to hold opinions without interference, freedom to receive ideas and information without interference, freedom to impart and communicate ideas and information without interference, whether the communication be to the public generally or to any person or class of persons, and freedom from interference with his correspondence.” It is also important to highlight that Zambia’s global ratings on freedoms globally has dropped from partially free to not free.
In the same vein we don’t expect the thoughts of citizen’s to limited to certain ideologies and briefs if not then there is ground for them to be attacked, as YALI we feel that is wrong and people should be allowed to think differently.
Article 19 (1) “Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of conscience, and for the purposes of this Article the said freedom includes freedom of thought and religion, freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others, and both in public and in private, to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
YALI believes that our political leaders should listen more to their opponents especially when they disagree so that they learn where the disagreement is coming from and try to build dialogue and find a solution, learning to co-exist is very critical in a multi-party democracy like Zambia.
Lastly YALI has been concerned about the violence in the country that is perpetuated by political carders, we believe that there is a bigger role that our young people can play in society other than of that of being used as violent carders, we believe that our young people should be integrated more in more progressive activities in their parties and violence should be condemned by all political parties top leadership and those who are involved should brought to book by both their part and law enforcement agencies. What are the spillover effects of this violence on the economy and country?
- Uncertainty, due to the continued violence and lawlessness there is increased uncertainty by both local and international investors on putting their money in an economy that has elements of lawlessness their investments are treated for instance violence in the central business district.
- Loss of life through death,
- Increased crime as this carders with weapons may resort to use them for other violent crimes against citizens and may other effects.
Our appeal/Recommendations
- To the Zambia Police Force, we call on the police to enhance their levels of professionalism in dealing citizens of this country regardless of their political affiliation, Dr. Martin King Luther once said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Our call is similar to that of Dr. Martin Luther, our call is that our police should cherry-pick how to apply the law. The law should applied to the latter regardless of who is involved and impartiality should be maintained as the police conduct their duties.
- The police conduct basic training on various human rights that our citizens have and how they have go about them to avoid infringing on their rights, especially the application of the Public Order Act which has been abused in its application.
- Political parties should redefine the role of the young people in their political parties and young people should take-up the mantle leadership in their parties and influence policies that will help solve our generational challenges and not being used as tools of violence.
Conclusion
Zambia has been a role model to most countries in Africa and the deteriorating democratic space has many effects on the countries credentials globally, it has also many effects domestically the collateral damage might be too much for PF government to handle, our call as YALI is that let the PF government uphold the rule of law and respect peoples human rights regardless of their color, political affiliation, tribe, etc. The PF being the party in power should spearhead nonviolence and dialogue. Zambia needs to take a leaf from countries that faced violence and anarchy and avoid this by all means possible.
Mundia Paul Hakoola
Executive Board Secretary
Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)
The problem is Sata. Nabafwe fye mwee. Twanaka nabo. This man is holding this country to ransom.
Most zambians look dirty, look at those girls in that picture.
I take three showers a day and by the looks of those girls I doubt they take any at all.
Unforgivable, with zambia’s weather
Thanks
freedom is relative and there is no where in the world where there are no violations…. Even at the United Nations.
Our Country has its own shortcomings but we are certainly getting better and we will keep improving.
@mushota. Eeeeshi three times a day.then your gate valve must be the cleanest in whichever country you are. However leave our dirty sisters with us.keep cleaning white man’s a55. You inferior lesbian.
@Gen
You are the kind of parent who does’nt give his children good food because your neighbour does not! How shocking.
What Zambians are asking for are basic freedoms which your Sata enjoyed when talked ill of Mwanawasa and Banda . Basic freedoms which allowed Sata to hold rallies any time any where with out hindrance in the name useless POA.
If your level of analysis is what is considered best in PF then Zambia is serious trouble until you guys are out and locked up for a long time.
Some very educated ministers in PF have now realised that their jobs in PF are not immortal and have started listeing to UPND’s concerns. The closed door meeting held between PF and UPND is inspiring if and only if the PF implement what was discussed. But knowing how good PF is at swallowing vomit..
Folks
To be honest Sata is dead , I mean brain dead. What good is a president who is brain dead and spends most his time hallucinating?
SATA IS A DEAD MAN WALKING PERIOD.
@ illuminati!f****k you Motherf*****ker!!Waba itole swine,die first…….
@ wanzelu
i understand your trouble to comprehend the fact that freedom is relative.
no wonder in your moribund UPND and its rotten head, you confuse tribalism for networking and selfishness for assertiveness. this tops-turvy understanding of issues makes even your food metaphor is extremely hollow.
It must be acknowledged that development is dynamic and we are still moving forward on several fronts a nation and freedoms and rights are just part of that agenda.
We refuse our country to be contaminated by your unbridled and shameless tribalism and regionalism policies which form the core of your party
I pity your misguided and imprudent loyalty to oblivion
Who is sponsoring these kids? From the onset they speak for the so called opposition
Who is sponsoring you to utter such rub.bish?
@lamfras: Read the whole article before you post such comments. The Girls are right and PF should uphold the fruits of freedom in our country. It is a shame that PF and you its cadres behave like illiterates. PF should know that No one is above the Law. Even people like Muammar al-Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein had their day. So Sata and his PF cadres should not think to be any special. His day will come.
HH AS YOU CAN SEE THE SURNAMES OF LEADER ARE ALL TONGAS
Who’s sponsoring these girls?
time waste just keep on studies and other things and be proactive
Ala bwafya, abana besu aba. These days even us parents are getting insulted in the name “our rights”. These NGOs, even for school children sure.
These girls are just ranting and no one can take them seriously? It is clear that they are sponsored by the Opposition from the manner they have sided with the opposition through out the article. Please learn to be balanced in your analysis and not this one sided analysis you have thrown to us.
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
Is sata alive and in zed? It will be difficult for the nation to know the day sata will die perhaps it will take a month before people start mourning or celebrating for his death.
Young ladies in the picture, don’t waste your time on unproductive ventures where you are just exposed as if you are participating in a beauty contest, but in overalls!!
those words are not in the image of God , pliz my bruther just try to pray for the President than saying bad thing , let love one another wat ever cames God be with you always
Mundia Paul Hakoola.
Mushota,they ‘look’ dirty,amano tawakwata
Ba mushota. U mwanakashi usamba imiku itatu ninshi alikwata akachena ke sabi ilyabola. You need medical attention
How about the opposition who go round issuing alarming statements that the president has passed on, when he is working. How about the opposition who pay online bloggs to insult the presidency ultimately insulting the Zambian people. How about the opposition who bit up and injure law enforcement officers. How about the opposition who pay cadres or people to disrupt a presidential visit to a town so that when the officers of the law deal with the paid up people then they run to the sponsored media and plead human rights abuses. We are sick and tired of this cry baby thing. Be real and oppose real issues than mere rhetorics.
Hard facts 1. Cadres have been employed in the police and look at every thing from the party perspective. 2. A very weak labour movement that has got completely no influence to paralyses government for indiscpline 3. NGOs who just shout with no action, by now we should have seen injunction after injunction to stop abuses. But NGO is now a salary
YALI is a US Government funded initiative, it’s another foreign funded QuaNGO. Like ZESN in Zimbabwe. Welcome to ‘modern democracy’.
From their website’s (yaliafrica org) ‘About Us’ page:
” Who are we? The Young African Leaders’ Initiative (YALI or the Initiative) is an African-wide movement of young leaders established in 2010 after the President’s Forum for Young African Leaders held in Washington DC, USA. YALI was officially registered and incorporated as a Company By Limited Guarantee pursuant to Section 6 of the Companies Act on 6th January, 2011 under Certificate of Incorporation No. 892370. “
From the USAID’s YALI page:
Committing Resources to Developing Young Talent
Since 2010, the State Department has held fifteen exchanges specifically for young African leaders and sponsored 1,283 sub-Saharan scholars through its educational and cultural affairs programs. U.S. Embassies have awarded small grants totaling $750,000 to YALI alumni groups supporting youth development in Africa. Other State Department-led efforts, such as LIONS @FRICA and Apps4Africa, have focused on building an entrepreneurial ecosystem to encourage broad-based economic growth and opportunity for young entrepreneurs – partnering with the private sector…
Continued from USAID…
” to run startup competitions, grow incubators, and develop innovative new products to address local and business and development needs.
Since YALI’s inception, USAID has invested more than $100 million in over 76 partnerships with African universities to help train a new generation of African leaders in health, agriculture, education, environmental science, technology, and other sectors. ”
***
See also at the US State Department
(Google:) Young African Leaders Initiative Network – Investing in the next generation of African leaders
There’s nothing like foreign funded ‘democracy’.
Comment from Susan Brems of USAID:
(THE POST) US govt confident of growth of Zambian young leaders’ voice – Brems
By Fridah Nkonde and Faheemah Bhagoo
Thu 19 June 2014, 17:40 CAT
THE United States government is wholeheartedly committed to the Zambian youth, says United States Agency for International Development mission director Dr Susan Brems.
During the YouthMap Zambia: Youth Voices, Finding Solutions dissemination event in Lusaka today, Dr Brems said the United States was confident that the voice of Zambia’s young leaders would continue to grow.