By BRIAN HATYOKA –
THE Zambia Law Development Commission (ZLDC) will be undertaking research aimed at addressing the gaps relating to torture in the Zambian statute books, deputy director Joyce Shezongo Macmillan has said.
Ms Macmillan said the just ended experts’ seminar on the Criminalisation of Torture in Zambia in Livingstone was one of the initial activities that would lead to making of recommendations for consideration by the Government.
She noted that 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.
Ms Macmillan was speaking in Livingstone at the experts’ seminar on the Criminalisation of Torture in Zambia.
The experts’ seminar has been organised by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and 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”.
“At the ZLDC, it is our considered opinion that, the review of the Penal Code will be incomplete without requisite recommendations, on how Zambia should deal with this lacuna relating to the proscription of torture in the law.
“Therefore, in fulfilling its mandate to develop new areas of the law, which are responsive to the changing needs of the Zambian society, the ZLDC will be undertaking research on how best to fill this lacuna,” Ms Macmillan said