The Zambian Government has hit back at a statement by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, accusing the mandate holder of factual errors, prejudicial characterisations and overstepping the limits of the mandate.
Government says the Special Rapporteur’s description of recent developments as a “post-election crackdown” and opposition figures facing criminal proceedings as “political detainees” is unsubstantiated and prejudicial.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has also rejected the assertion that senior opposition figures are facing “concocted charges of treason”, arguing that such a conclusion risks prejudicing matters currently before the courts.
Government has further challenged the Special Rapporteur’s claim that treason is a capital offence in Zambia, pointing out that the country abolished the death penalty in 2022 and subsequently acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which seeks the abolition of the death penalty.
It says no offence in Zambian law currently carries the death penalty and, therefore, no person charged with treason faces execution.
Government has also contrasted the Special Rapporteur’s statement with the approach taken by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy, who was present in Zambia and engaged directly with the parties during the events in question.
According to Government, the Special Envoy facilitated the handover of two leaders to the Church and later to security agencies on the basis of assurances that their fundamental rights would be respected through due process.
The Government further argues that the Special Rapporteur went beyond the specific mandate on freedom of peaceful assembly and association by making sweeping assertions regarding alleged electoral flaws, intimidation, assaults, abductions and deaths without, it says, sufficient independent verification.
It is now calling on the Special Rapporteur and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to publicly correct the reference to treason as a capital offence and to clearly distinguish between allegations and verified facts in future communications.
Government says Zambia remains committed to constitutional democracy, political pluralism, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, the rule of law and constructive cooperation with the United Nations human rights system.
By Victoria Kayeye Yambani
