By BRIAN HATYOKA –
VICE-President Inonge Wina has called for concerted efforts at all levels  to eliminate torture in the country.
Ms Wina said the country had a lot of work to achieve dignity and freedom from torture hence the need for concerted efforts to eliminate the vice.
She said there was need for Zambia to move forward and make torture a crime.

. Wina

Ms Wina said this in Livingstone at Protea Hotel yesterday in a speech read for her by the deputy minister in her office, Lazarus Chungu during the official opening of the experts’ seminar on the Criminalisation of Torture in Zambia.
The experts’ seminar has been organised by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and the Zambia Law Development Commission (ZLDC) under the theme ‘Moving towards Criminalisation of Torture in Zambia’.
Article 15 of the Zambian Constitution states that, ‘a person shall not be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading punishment or other like treatment’.
“My Government is fully aware of the gravity of the offence of torture and its very devastating effects on individuals and society.
“It is regrettable to note that Zambia is yet to criminalise torture despite being a state party to the United Nations Conventions against torture,” she said.
Speaking at the same gathering, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) country director Martin Faria Maya said the global human rights established that torture was a gross violation of human right.
Mr Maya said torture did not only deny the victim the sense of dignity and human worth but also affected the entire family, community and society as a whole.
HRC director Florence Chibwesha said torture was a serious issue which must be addressed with greater resolve.
Ms Chibwesha said it was not an exaggeration that torture existed in Zambia and that the most common occurrences had been reported in prisons and police stations.
ZLDC deputy director Joyce Macmillan said the organisation had found that there was a lacuna relating to torture in the Zambian statute book.
Ms Macmillan said although torture was prohibited in the Zambian constitution, the law neither defined nor proscribed torture and as a result people implicated in acts of torture were often charged with any of different assaults proscribed in the Penal Code.