As I’ve been researching on the rights of women and children, and in particular those behind bars I looked up the constitution. Sadly, our current constitution from 1996 has no such provisions. So, I turned to both the 2005 Mung’omba Draft Constitution and the 2010 NCC Draft Constitution – neither of which have been adopted but have had a significant amount of work put in.
Lo and behold there is applicable language but there are stark differences between the two that I find disturbing. This is in Part VI, the Bill of Rights section. The highlighted are the areas I consider applicable to this unique situation but please notice other omissions.
Summary
This entire section was eliminated
(c) to free basic education;
(e) to be protected from all forms of exploitation and any work that is likely to be hazardous or adverse to the child’s welfare;
(g) not to be subjected to corporal punishment or any other form of violence or cruel and inhumane treatment in schools and other institutions responsible for the care of children;
(a) to a name and a nationality from birth and to have the birth registered;
(c) to be protected from all forms of exploitation and any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education or to be harmful to the child’s health, or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.
2005 Draft
- Article 42, Clause 3, advocates for “non-custodial sentences” to be considered first for pregnant women or nursing mothers unless they pose a serious threat to the community.
- Article 43, Clause 5 (part J) clearly states that every child has a right not to be incarcerated on account of the mother’s incarceration.
- Article 43, Clause 6 calls upon the State and society to take responsibility of taking care of children of inmates (and other vulnerable children
Whatever reasoning the National Constitution Conference (NCC) had for watering down these rights and protections in the 2010 Draft is beyond me. But given what we now know of the narrow focus directed by the ruling MMD party this is not entirely unsurprising. They have constantly pushed their own agenda at the expense of the wishes expressed by the Zambian people in previous constitution reviews, and it just further illustrates how we continue to lose out.
The Way Forward
So, knowing all this, what is the way forward? The 2010 Draft was soundly defeated in Parliament and yours truly was not among those crying at the loss. It was a futile effort that duplicated and defiled earlier work that had been done well and was accepted by Zambians; and it cost billions of Kwacha that will never be recouped.
We need to unite in our opposition to the government’s dilly-dallying on this issue. We need a strong constitution enacted, and we have no shortage of good language already available such as that shown above from the 2005 Draft. We need to have an expanded Bill of Rights that reflect the things that matter most to Zambians, and repeal the bad laws we currently have on the books.
We cannot continue like this. It is high time the government and the people of Zambia took up their responsibility to protect and respect the rights of all women and children, including the rights of those in prison.
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