Endangered wildlife versus human rights issues

By engineer Everson Makowa-Mwale:

A fierce debate ensued on social media on October 11 and 12, 2025 following a poorly reported court verdict, whereby a man had been sentenced to 15 months in jail in connection with the possession and trading of seven protected wild birds. Being both an advocate of human rights and promoter of wildlife conservation, I have taken notice of the majority view— which was to sympathise, and correctly so, with the poor man heading for jail and to trivialise, sadly so, whatever need there may be to conserve endangered bird species in particular and wildlife in general. I would, therefore, like to speak out as follows.

Without even taking into account the United Nations Charter on Human Rights or the Bill of Rights in our Republican Constitution, I, for one, have the in-born instinct to not only sympathise with people wherever they may suffer abuse and victimisation but to even reach out to them in their times of need. Of course, reaching out has to be done with extreme care because human rights abuses often happen in insecure environments, whereby anyone else can be caught up in the victimisation.

When I was in college at the-then The Polytechnic in the late 1980s, a thief was caught stealing clothes in the hostels. A commotion followed, whereby the man was brought to an arena near the staircase of the ladies’ hostel we used to call Florida. An instant mob justice scenario unfolded but I could not be party to it precisely because mob justice has never been, and is not, in my DNA. I watched from a distance, sooner drawing nearer because it increasingly looked savagely.

The man was now in a life-or-death situation. His nose was tearing apart and bleeding heavily. Without any hesitation, I forced my way in, pleading with everyone that it was enough, only for a colleague to grab my hand, taking me away with the words, “Come on, thieves do not deserve any sympathy!’ I now can’t remember how it all ended in my absence. It all sounds familiar, a suppose— mob justice, the Malawian way.

What about human rights at a global level? The Israel/ Palestine conflict quickly comes to mind, doesn’t it? Sad how, on daily basis, we go through media accounts of indiscriminate bombings by both Israel and Hamas, hostage taking by Hamas, alleged torture by both Israel and Hamas, summary executions of fellow Palestinians by Hamas, weaponisation of food aid by Israel, use of human shields by Hamas and the like.

Over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza alone in the past two years, most of them children and women. Twice that number or more have been wounded. On the other side, about 1,600 Israelis have been killed within the same timeframe, and twice that number or more have been injured.

Dear reader, images of children, women, and all, being subjected to the various forms of suffering invoke real trauma in all of us. My heart goes out to them. And who is to blame? Well, that’s not for me to judge. All I know is that both Israelis and Palestinians have a place to live in this world. It is up to them to choose between a one-State solution or two-State solution.

One thing, though, I can say without hesitation or whatever. Hamas needs to be disarmed and even disbanded as a political organisation. Why? Because their tactics of using human shields and engaging in guerrilla warfare smack of terrorism. That aside, I condemn the often-excessive force with which Israel deals with Hamas’ machinations. The Abraham accords are the ultimate answer to the long-standing Middle East standoff. I am happy President Donald Trump, supported by regional leaders, is making good of the need to douse this ever-burning fire.

Lastly, on human rights, it’s high time we, Africans, stopped our obsession with dirty politics. Politics should simply mean a competition of ideas as to who can serve the people better. There is no need to kill each other in the name of politics. There is no need to ostracise our perceived rivals in party politics.

In this country, Malawi, countless people have been killed just for someone to clear their way to the top or to tighten their grip on power—shame. I have gone through a lot myself in this regard. I once lived like a prisoner of conscience, shunned for years by party associates, without charge, all because I was perceived to be a threat to certain over-ambitious politicians.

I was even wished dead at some point in time. This was at a time when I had suddenly developed a painful leg, a condition that the most reputable local hospital had failed to diagnose. It was not a condition that required sending me outside the country. But remembering that the political organisation in which I had a leadership position had been sending colleagues to India for medical attention, I thought I had a right to ask for assistance to go for medical attention locally, just in Lilongwe or Blantyre.

So, I went ahead to present my case. Receipt of my request was duly acknowledged by a welfare colleague who was genuinely sympathetic to my plight and was known to be very helpful. I was told to wait for the final response, which was expected to originate from a higher authority.

Three years down the line, I don’t remember any such response, positive or negative, coming my way. It just became clear that someone higher up was happy that a health condition had caught up with me.

God had other plans, however. I did take strides on my own to diagnose my condition, whereby the whole thing simply pointed to hypertension (high blood pressure). And, I quickly remembered that I had, for many years, ignored advice on the need for me to consistently be taking medication for hypertension.

I, therefore, quickly did the needful, and that’s how I saved my life and defied the wishes of my political detractors.

Dear reader, those are some of my experiences with human rights. There is a lot more I can say, but time and space do not allow.

For wildlife, there are no two ways about its conservation. I, for one, take pride in the fact that I am a naturalist. This means I am passionate about every wildlife species, such that I would like to see such wildlife survive any possibility of extinction. My focus is not on animal rights but wildlife conservation.

Suffice to say that I wouldn’t look away when any form of animal life, domesticated or not, is subjected to prolonged suffering. We eat animals, yes, but the act of killing animals for food is not a deliberate act of torture.

As a wildlife enthusiast, I am a proud, founding member of the Dwangwa Branch of Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (Wesm).

As such, I wish long life for all animals and plants found in Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, Nyika National Park, Kasungu National Park, Liwonde National Park, Lake Malawi National Park and Lengwe National Park.

For Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, we used, some of our activities were taking secondary school children to what used to be Chipata Youth Camp, carrying out boundary clearing exercises with students where the need arose, operating a tuckshop for staff who stayed deep in the reserve (Tongole) and other general support activities.

My own 4.2 hectares in the outskirts of Nkhotakota Town are a wildlife microcosm. The bottom line of wildlife conservation is probably best summed up by the popular saying that “People need nature; nature does not need people!”

So, having gone through the above fine examples of human rights and wildlife conservation realities, I now leave it to you, the reader, to approve or disapprove of the court verdict at the heart of this writeup, taking into account the fact that almost no one outside the court system has seen the written court judgement.

Further, we should all take comfort in the fact that any party to a court case can go for appeal. The poor man may not have the means and the wherewithal to mount an appeal, so any sympathy to him would best be expressed through material support to him. And let someone help bring out to the public the full reading of the court verdict.