Zambia: Rule of law

Edda Costarelli, October 2001

In Zambia, the Government institutions and the rule of law remain extremely weak, with courts heavily overburdened by work, ineffective and underpaid. According to Human Rights Watch, in the past year the Zambian government reported bureaucratic obstacles to inhibit opposition campaigns, used the Public Order Act to crush dissenting views and denied on such grounds permits of assembly and freedom of expression using the law at its discretion against the opposition.

According to the US Department of State (2000), courts remained independent and at times made statements critical of the State. However, repeated delays in presenting a state case, as against journalists from The Independent Post newspaper, raised concerns that the Government was simply delaying the case in order to intimidate the newspaper.

The Constitution currently in force was adopted in 1991 and subjected to amendments in 1996. Against the expectations of several prominent politicians, the Constitutional amendments of 1996 were not submitted to referendum, but merely adopted by the Parliament, which consists of a comfortable MMD majority.

As a result, a range of shortcomings in the amended Constitution were called into question by local non-governmental organisations and academics prior to adoption, but remained unheard. Amongst recriminations, Article 34 was said to call into question citizenship rights, requiring both parents of a president candidate to be of Zambian origin. Such provision successfully excluded the former president Kenneth Kaunda from running for re-election in 1996, and, on such grounds, several members of his party were deported to Malawi.

Reference

US DEPARTMENT OF STATE 2000 "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 1999", Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.