Malawi CSOs in Banjul for African Commission session
Civil society organisations in the country will next week present Malawi’s human rights record before the African Commission’s 58th session in Banjul, The Gambia.
Speaking before departing for the Gambia, human rights activists Gift Trapence and Reverend MacDonald Sembereka said the session provided an opportunity for the CSO community in Malawi to update the African Commission and member states on the state of human rights in Malawi.
Trapence said when Malawi Government last appeared before the commission, there were a lot of recommendations made as well as questions raised.
He said Malawi has made some progress in a number of areas such as putting in place legal framework to protect the right of women and children.
He also cited Malawi’s adoption of the Disability Act in 2012, Gender equality Act in 2012, Prevention of Domestic Violence Act in 2006, the enactment of the Legal Aid Act and the establishment of a human rights unit within the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs as marks of progress.
“There is also the recently adopted Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations legislation and trafficking in persons’ legislation, review of various laws for constitution adherence including those related to sexual reproductive health. These are some of the positive developments worth commending the Malawi Government for,” he said.
But he noted that there are still more challenges which the government needs to work on.
“The perennial tendency by government machinery or the ruling party to abuse the state media or use its privately-owned media in advancing propaganda against civil society leaders or any patriotic citizen speaking on governance issues needs to be tackled,” he said.
He added there is also need to do away with threats to human rights defenders and also conclusion to investigation of mysterious deaths of Malawians such as Robert Chasowa and Issa Njaunju.
“Up to now, these cases are not being concluded and that is one major issue we are also taking to the Commission. We are also worried with the delays on Access to Information bill. We are concerned with the continued attacks against people with albinism. As a country we don’t have a clear strategy on how we can combat these killings,” he said.
The CSO leaders also expressed concern over rising cases of mob justice and political violence.
Malawi government made its first appearance before the 56th session of African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights for the review of the initial report submitted in 2013.
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