Number 16 April/May, 2000 |
What's in the News?the LRF Newsletter |
Corporal Punishment still alive
But Judiciary Chief Administrator Philip Musonda has urged all such magistrates across the country to respect the High Court’s decision to ban corporal punishment in Zambia. A magistrate in Lusaka a couple of months ago ordered a man he convicted to receive strikes of the cane thereby disregarding Judge Esau Chulu’s ruling to ban corporal punishment in Zambia which he said was unconstitutional and demeaning on the part of the convicts. He said the Zambian constitution did not support torture and that corporal punishment amounted to torture. Musonda in an interview last month said magistrate’s were obliged to obey the High Court ruling on corporal punishment. “This is not optional, they just have to obey whether they like it or not,” Musonda said. “In fact we had a meeting with the prison department and it was agreed that corporal punishment was banned in line with the High Court’s ruling. One magistrate in Mazabuka wanted to pass corporal punishment but it was not allowed because the High Court ruling is binding. It’s only the Supreme Court that can overturn that ruling, not any other lower court.” Musonda said there was hierarchy and magistrates would do well to follow this. “If there are magistrates doing this let them stop because they cannot disobey the High Court just like the High Court cannot disobey the Supreme court or the local court cannot disobey the magistrate’s court,” Musonda said.
| Front page | LRF opens centre in Livingstone | Letters to the Editor | Need to protect ZAmbian women & girls | Corporal Punishment still alive | Seven years of service, the LRF story | Mobile courts suggested | Children in crises offered helping hand | Around the centres | Know your rights | Government sued over Police mistake | Police clump down on brothels | Public health & you |
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ome magistrates
have continued passing corporal punishment against the order of the High
Court.