25th April, 2015 Zambezi Sun Hotel
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Chipo Mushota Nkhata Matilda Chileshe Kaoma Convenor Secretary HIV/AIDS Committee HIV/AIDS Committee THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT (MIDLANDS) 2014 – 2015
This is the Report of the Human Rights Committee (Midlands) of the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ). The Convenor of the Committee is Mr. Ian Mabbolobbolo. The Committee elected Mr. Francis Kondwelani Mwale as its Secretary. MEMBERSHIP The following were the registered members of the Committee:
The Committee held seven (7) meetings. Out of these, four (4) were its scheduled meetings and three (3) were joint meetings with other Committees and the Council. During the first meeting, the Committee came up with a schedule for its meetings, rules and draft terms of reference. These were submitted to the Council for approval which approval was granted. Most of the meetings were poorly attended and at times could not take place due to lack of forming a quorum.
The Human Rights Committee is in the process of developing and implementing a collaboration plan with law enforcement agencies with a view to putting in place measures and interventions to curb violation of human rights. This is consistent with objective 3.1.5 of the Law Association of Zambia Strategic Plan 2013 to 2018. The Committee has embarked on a mapping exercise as a beginning point in what is envisaged as a continuous programme by the Committee as it interacts with law enforcement agencies and other relevant stakeholders in this regard.
The Human Rights Committee jointly with the HIV Committee had lined up community outreach activities to commemorate the World Aids Day which fell on 1st December 2014. The two Committees presented second hand clothes, shoes, groceries and toiletries to Kalingalinga Hospice at which the president of the Law Association graciously led the two Committees in this very noble venture thereby fulfilling part of the Association’s Social Corporate Responsibility.
The Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) deployed an Election observation mission to the 20th January presidential election in Zambia. The mission comprising 14 observers drawn from 9 countries was led by His Excellency Cassam Uteem, former President of the Republic of Mauritius. As part of preparations for observing the Elections, EISA requested LAZ to make a presentation to the team of observers on the constitutional and legal frame work. The Human Rights Committee Convener and the LAZ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) made a presentation to EISA on 17th January 2015 at the Pamodzi Hotel on relevant constitutional and legal framework within which the January 2015 presidential Elections were held.
The Human Rights Committee as mandated spearheaded the monitoring of the 2015 Presidential Election where the Association deployed about 60 monitors in 3 provinces. The activities carried out by the LAZ monitors led by the Human Rights Committee commenced with holding a pre-election meeting at which the LAZ monitors were trained on election monitoring by an official from the National Democratic Institute. Other activities included visitation to polling stations on the eve of election day, monitoring of elections on the actual polling day, post election visitation to polling stations, submission of individual reports by LAZ monitors, monitoring the proceedings at the results totaling centre at Mulungushi International Conference Centre for the entire period, compilation of report for consideration by LAZ Council and eventual issuance of public statement by LAZ on the conduct of the elections.
The Human Rights Committee members, among others, attended the seminar on the right to freedom of expression in Zambia on 16th February, 2015. The Seminar was hosted jointly by Panos Institute of Southern Africa, the Law School of the University of Zambia and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC). The topics presented at the seminar were as follows:
The Zambia Law Development Commission partnered with the Human Rights Commission with support from the United Nations Development Programme hosted a four days Experts’ Seminar on the ‘Criminalisation of Torture in Zambia’. The Seminar was held at Protea Hotel in Livingstone from 2nd to 5th March, 2015. LAZ was invited to attend at the Seminar and was represented by the Committee Secretary. The goal of the Seminar was to galvanise various actors to ensure that torture was criminalised in national legislation within the short term in conformity with international human rights standards. The specific objectives were:
The Experts’ Seminar came up with clear resolutions on the way forward with regards to criminalisation of torture in Zambia.
The work of the Committee continued to be constrained by the low participation of members in meetings and other activities of the Committee. This state of affairs places a heavier burden on the few committed members and sometimes leads to the Committee failing in attending to some assignments within the required time frame. It is hoped that with the LAZ Council’s decision authorizing engagement of interns from law schools from the universities, the burden will be lightened especially for programmes requiring research because the interns will help with data collection and other assignments fitting their level.
Even with the highlighted challenges, it is important to note that as an Association in general and a Committee in particular, our work still contributes to the general wellbeing of society. This alone is motivation enough to push on and even do better by working hard. We wish the incoming Committee all the best. ------------------------------- --------------------------------------
I present below, a report of the International Relations Committee (IRC) activities during the period 2014 to 2015. Mrs Ngosa Simachela is the Convenor and Ms Melody Mayaka is the Secretary. The two were ushered into office at elections held at the frist meeting of the Committee held on 2nd June 2014. The Committee had four out of its seven scheduled meetings with an average attendance of four members per meeting.
The following were the registered members of the Committee;
The IRC operates within six terms of Reference namely:
The 15th Annual SADC Lawyers Association Conference and General Meeting was held at the Elephant Hills Resort, Victoria Falls Zimbabwe from 21st to 24th August 2014. The theme for the Conference was “Strengthening the Rule of Law and Good Governance in the SADC Region: A call for Transparent and Accountable Leadership.” The Conference was opened by Honourable Emmerson Mnangagwa (MP), Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs of the Republic of Zimbabwe. The keynote speaker was His Excellency Joaquim Chissano, former President of the Republic of Mozambique who is a distinguished statesman. Twenty Five (25) Zambians attended the conference. The delegation was led by our President Mr George Chisanga. There were two Zambian speakers namely Charles Mkokweza and Fred Mmembe. This Conference marked the end of the tenure of office of Mrs Kondwa Sakala Chibiya as President of SADCLA. She has done the Association proud! The new President of the Association is Gilberto Caldeira Correia from Mozambique. The Vice-President is our very own Mr James Banda, immediate past LAZ President.
Our 2014 ambassadors were Makalo Mwaanza and Situlile Ngatsha who did their placement at two top UK law firms. The selection method for ILFA candidates has been revised. Participants are required to submit an on-line application after which candidates are short-listed by ILFA and interviewed by the national committees like LAZ. Thereafter nominations are made and the final selection done by the ILFA board. The committee urges our younger members of the bar to apply for these placements.
On 25th July 2014, the Council tasked the Committee with preparing a bid to host the Africa Regional Forum Conference 2016. To this end, the Committee worked tirelessly to prepare a bid document highlighting Zambia as the ideal Conference destination and indicating the Association’s desire and commitment to hosting a successful Conference. The Committee then handed over the Bid to the President, Mr George Chisanga, immediate past President James Banda and former Association President Mr Elijah Banda SC to present at the IBA Conference in Tokyo, Japan held in October 2014.
A small number of Zambian delegates attended this Conference. Top on our agenda for this meeting was the presentation of our bid to the Legal Practice Division of the IBA. I am pleased to report that our team of “Presidents” did very well and the Association won the bid to host the ARF Conference which will be held from 18th to 20th November 2015 in Livingstone Zambia.
Having been chosen to host this wonderful meeting of African lawyers, the Committee felt it was important to seek the help of other members of the Association to help in the preparation for the Conference. Our invited members of the Ad-hoc Committee are Mr Nchima Nchito SC, Mr Pengani Yangailo, Mrs Pixie Yangailo, Mrs Catherine Lombe and Mr Sokwani Chilembo. I am grateful that they agreed to serve.
This year the Committee did not do much work in the area of domestication and ratification of international treaties. This is because most of our members are now serving on the Organising Committee for the ARF Conference. This has placed serious time constraints on our members and it was decided that we concentrate on making the Regional Conference a success. Domestication of International treaties is an area that we hope to pursue next year with the aid of the Law Reform Committee.
As with most LAZ Committees, our greatest challenge is that of numbers. In order to fulfil our mandate we need more people who will actively participate in the activities of the Committee. We have many people sign up as members but very few attend meetings and actually carry out assignments given to them. This places a great strain on the same people who find themselves bearing the load for a team of what is supposed to be 15 people. We hope that this will change in the coming year. We also foresee that the Committee will be more effective with the recruitment of interns from local universities who assist the Committee in its work.
The International Relations Committee requires the support of the entire membership in making the Africa Regional Forum Conference in November 2015 a huge success. It would be a shame to host such a prestigious event in our ‘backyard’ and not have the largest country turn out. I would encourage all members to attend the Conference I would also like to thank all the members of the IRC for sacrificing their time to participate in Committee activities. It is wonderful to serve with you all. I look forward to continuing with our work in the coming year. …………………………………………………
The Law Reform and Constitutional Affairs Committee (the Committee) was reconstituted for a two-year term (2014-2016) in May 2014. It however only had its first meeting in August 2014. We have had fairly regular meetings since then, on every second Thursday of almost every month. There have been five (5) meetings to date. The Committee also maintains an email network with its members for work required outside of the regular meeting schedule. The work of the Committee thus far has been largely successful. We have submitted to the National Assembly on various pieces of proposed legislation, in conjunction with the Executive advised cooperating partners on some Constitutional issues, and began analysing the various documents in the Constitution review process. We have also faced challenges in our work. The two most significant challenges have been membership apathy and inefficiencies at the Secretariat. The latter challenge has in turn also caused challenges in working with other Committees on issues for which our respective mandates overlap. In the rest of this report, we summarise out terms of reference and the activities we have engaged in. We then highlight our challenges and our achievements. We also suggest the means by which we intend to overcome these challenges before we conclude.
Our terms of reference (ToRs) can be summarised as follows:
Most of our work for the period under consideration has been on items (ii) and (iv) of the ToRs.
The reconstituted Committee had a list of twenty two (22) members in May 2014. However, by Committee resolution dated 12 February 2015 and notice dated 13 March 2015, that list was reduced to ten (10) members. The circumstances leading to the resolution and reduction in membership are discussed as one of the Committee’s challenges at Part 6.1 below. The current membership of the Committee is therefore as follows:
The Committee resolved to meet on the second Thursday of every month. We have consistently maintained that schedule, except for during the festive period in December 2014 and for our March 2015 meeting because it fell on a public holiday (Youth Day). Previous attempts to reschedule meetings that fell during public holidays have failed due to other Committees’ pre-arranged meetings and the lack of additional space at the Secretariat. To date, five (5) meetings have been held. Attendance in the beginning was relatively robust, but eventually dwindled down to the bare minimum for a quorum (two). Email correspondence has to some extent assisted with participation in Committee activities beyond the regular meetings. This is particularly for urgent work outside the regular meeting schedule, such as preparing submissions on Bills in the very short timeframes the National Assembly provides.
For the period under consideration, the Committee made submissions to the National Assembly on some Bills, considered other types of requests for research from various stakeholders, and began its analysis of the various documents in the Constitution review process.
Unfortunately, there were email challenges at the Secretariat on the date the submissions were sent to them for onward forwarding to the National Assembly. After numerous follow-ups over several days, the Secretariat stated that it had eventually sent the submissions. We however received a contrary response from the National Assembly, who insisted that they had never received them. The Bills have since become law. The efforts of the Committee likely went to waste on these Bills. Equally, LAZ missed this opportunity to comment and possibly influence proposed legislation that had a direct impact on the administration of justice and the rule of law. We have therefore highlighted the manner in which these submissions were handled as one of the challenges this Committee has faced, in Part 6.2 below.
In summary, this Committee submitted that the National Anti-Terrorism Centre proposed by the Bill was poorly structured, poorly integrated with other relevant Government agencies, and had excessive powers that invaded privacy and would be prone to abuse. The Committee therefore recommended on behalf of LAZ that the Bill should be withdrawn and substantially revised. On their part, the Administration of Justice Committee recommended that the principal Act had many deficiencies that needed to be addressed. Having learned our lessons from the previous set of Bills, we corresponded directly with the relevant Committee at the National Assembly on this Bill. We are certain that this approach contributed substantially to our submissions being received in time and considered by the Honourable Committee. We are pleased to report that the Honourable Committee of the House considered the position of LAZ and other stakeholders and recommended that the Bill be withdrawn. The full House agreed with the recommendation and the Bill was withdrawn on 20 March 2015, “for further consultation”. |