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Government to criminalize torture in Zambia-Lubinda

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Constitution Court of Zambia Justice Palan Mulonda shake hands with Minister of Justice Given Lubinda while Zambia Law Development Commission Justice Raydah Kaoma looks just after the handover ceremony at his office
Constitution Court of Zambia Justice Palan Mulonda shake hands with Minister of Justice Given Lubinda while Zambia Law Development Commission Justice Raydah Kaoma looks just after the handover ceremony at his office

Justice Minister Given Lubinda says government will undertake legislative and other measures to prevent torture.

Speaking when he received the anti-torture draft bill and a report on the criminalisation of torture in Zambia from the Zambia Law Development Commission and the Human Rights Commission today, Mr Lubinda says the act of torture is a fundamental violation of human rights.

He states that criminalisation of torture fits well with government’s efforts to meet its various human rights obligations in its efforts to improve governance by providing better access to justice for the people of Zambia.

Mr Lubinda has since commended the Zambia law development commission for its role in facilitating the law reform process to enact legislation to criminalize torture in the country.

Mr. Lubinda has also hailed the Swedish government for offering financial support in the law reform process to criminalize the vice.

And the ZLDC Chairperson Justice Roydah Kaoma has stated that acts of torture have been devastating with often long lasting physical, mental and psychological effects on victims.

Justice Kaoma says some forms of torture related cases reported to the commission include severe beatings by the law enforcement officers, hanging of victims upside down and striping the victims naked.

She says these acts are cruel, inhuman and degrading.

Meanwhile Human Rights Commission Chairperson Medford Mwandenga said the anti-torture draft bill is a culmination of over two years of consultations and submissions from a wide range of key stakeholders.

Mr Mwandenga notes that there is no enabling legislation that either defines or prescribes penalties for perpetrators or remedies for the victims of torture in the country.

He says government should therefore redress such lacunas by enacting the law criminalizing torture in order to promote and protect the inherent dignity and inviolable rights of individuals.

Minister of Justice Given Lubinda unveils Criminalization of Torture in Zambia Project Report and Draft Bill just after the handover ceremony at his office
Minister of Justice Given Lubinda unveils Criminalization of Torture in Zambia Project Report and Draft Bill just after the handover ceremony at his office
Zambia Law Development Commission Justice Raydah Kaoma with Human Rights Commission Vice Chairperson Kondwa Sakala handover the Criminalization of Torture in Zambia Project Report and Draft Bill to Minister of Justice Given Lubinda at his office
Zambia Law Development Commission Justice Raydah Kaoma with Human Rights Commission Vice Chairperson Kondwa Sakala handover the Criminalization of Torture in Zambia Project Report and Draft Bill to Minister of Justice Given Lubinda at his office

37 COMMENTS

    • I condemn torture, we have been trying for a child and I am taking all the necessary medication and If the torture i have heard before happening in jail happened to Nick, I shudder thinking we may NEVER have children.

      Torture be it to HH or not should not be condoned.

      Like all of you on here I agree with Lubinda torture needs banning as a Christian nation.

      I may just be unknowingly implying HH should not be tortured.

      OMG I cant believe I am insinuating that.
      But I mean it

      I hold a PhD

      Thanks

      BB 2014,2016

    • Lubinda must visit HH, and let him hear about stories of torture at luanshya, Woodlands, lilayi, chimbokaila, mukobeko.
      Lubinda won’t wait for any Lungu input…

    • in short they are saying the POMPWE D!cktator lungu & PF belong in jail.

      – Beating up & Spraying HH & his workers with teargas & peppersrpray
      – Caging HH by converting a traffic offence into treason
      – Making HH bath in a bucket he uses a toilet
      – Beating him when transferring him to Mukubeko Prison

      PF & it’s supporters is an evil party that attracts illiterates, thugs, & con-men whose minds have been damaged by constant exposure to poverty

    • Wait until they violet your mother you Nudist Princess. What kind of a woman are you with no heart? You must have dad issues it’s evident to see that through your bitterness and bile.

    • @Nudist Princess. Wait until they violate your mother and sisters modests with their scum that’s when you will have compassion for the wrongs done on other innocent people by these illiterate soldiers of fortune!

    • Wake-up Lubinda, Zambia is already a member of the United Nations as such, tour is illegal under the aHuman Rights. It’s just a matter of time when most of you PF guys will end up in Hague for prosecution.

      Do the right things now before it’s too late.

      Free HH.

  1. It’s so absurd that all these years torture has been going on especially by law enforcement officers but their barbaric acts were not identified as torture or be required to face the law. However, it’s good riddance that it’s going to be law.

    And why was the Minister of Home Affairs not there to receive the draft bill? Him and his Ministry are the biggest culprits

    • PF and Lubinda are trying to divert attention from the arrest and torture of HH and his staff, the torture and murder of Choongwa by PFoIice and the continued torture of Barotse activists. Lungu is pure unadulterated evil.

  2. PF is really a party of nonsense. These people are torturers and know nothing about decent living. Lungu is ruled by his cadres because he is drunk all the time with his woman ugly Phiri.

    • The Bill of Rights and the whole referendum was a ploy by the PF to entrench Lungu’s regime. Now we can see how murderous PF and Lungu are.

    • My prayers that you receive curses for being evil and inhumane like other PF zealots are being answered.

    • That person you may be referring to is Zambia and with children who needs a father and a wife who needs a husband around. That person you may be referring to have parents just like yours who may be currently be speaking sleepless nights because their loved son/daughter is in prison for stating the obvious,

      It’s not worthy hating a person for the sake of money like the money collector in the bible.

      By now, every Zambian should be waking up from ‘ Dununa Reverse’ .

  3. How this dull chap Bo Lubinda is a minister of legal affairs is beyond me and an insult to the legal minds that have graced that office. We are members of UN am sure there is a charter will have signed there…
    How about passing bills that clap down on corruption instead of wasting more time and money again.

    • How do Lubinda and Inonge Wina face themselves every day being ministers in a PFascist regime that wants to eliminate Lozis from meaningful participation in the Zambian economy? Lungu is firing Lozis from the Civil Service and parastatals, and these two are quiet, not even choking on their steaks and wines!

  4. For once, this is progressive thinking! We have been living like Barbarians in some Savage Kingdom called Zambia!

    • So if he passes a bill that states its illegal to litter the streets you will call it progressive…really laughable..when you know deep down its wrong.
      Dont you know what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is? Its a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France.
      Wake up from your docility!!

  5. Bo Lombe, always on the side of the dark things! Who is surprised? None! The regional party and its members are pursuing a degree and their major is NEGATIVITY and are masters at it!

  6. When will the ruling party criminalize their violent PF cadreism? Isn’t that another form of torture?

  7. Framing people on trumped up fake charges is a form of torture.

    From the GBM arming and training youth to use boxing gloves and golf clubs to overthrow GRZ to the treason case of HH lungu and PF have been using trumped up fake charges to torture the opposition and silence critics…..

    This cr.ap by this student sponsorship stealing PF thug lubinda is only window dressing to try to water down the fake trumped up charges they use to torture the opposition and any other critic….. .

  8. Hanging people upside down or upright is all torture Bo Lubinda. Remove hanging and introduce life sentence in a prison fit for human habitat. Those Zambian prisons is all torture. How would you define torture in Zambia if it not the way prisons are run? People eat nshima once with uncooked beans, sleep on the floor, more than 1000 people share one toilet without water, they go to till land all day even if it is raining. I can go on and on but if that is not torture, how best can the justice Minister define it. In the absence of human rights, the minister would be perceived as Minister of Injustice.

    • @Politics of the belly godfather, I’m really sorry for what you went through. So when was this and how long were you inside? Sorry man????

  9. Zambia 1
    I have never been in those facilities however, I was living next to those facilities hence I had a deeper understanding. Besides I was a supplier.

  10. Just read kt for what it is……..its to portray zambia as having rule of law so that the international community especially IMF look favourabky at Zambia.
    Pipo ate posting accusations of torture against HH so to lessen that they introduce a law and say ,,no tbat cannot happen we have a law against that… zambia is becoming tedious……its actually sad when all is politicking but nothing to reduce poverty or to address the borrowered debt that has to be repaid. Will we be forgiven our debt again i doubt it we are in for very tough times

  11. We signed agreements against torture a long time ago and embedded this in successive Bills of Rights. Although proof of torture was supposed to negate any evidence obtained through those means, I cannot believe that there were no avenues in the prevailing criminal law to punish the perpetrators.

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