NUMBER 30                                     AUGUST, 2001

By Delphine Hampande

FROM time immemorial, Zambia has been executing people found guilty of serious crimes. These are murder, treason, misprision of treason and aggravated robbery. All this came as a way of trying to reduce the levels of crime in the country.

But according to the Amnesty International report released in the country recently, indications are that nowhere in the whole world has the death penalty resulted in crime reduction but instead involves the execution of people innocent of any crime.

And under the Bill of Rights in the Zambian Constitution, it recognises and declares that every Zambian has the right to life but there is provision for when a person maybe deprived of his life intentionally. This is when a court pronounces the death penalty on a convict.

In Zambia, the only lawful way of implementing death penalty is by hanging until one is pronounced dead.

But this mode of execution is not only disapproved of by the Amnesty International but also conflicts with section 25(1) of the Penal Code and Article 15 of the Constitution.

Section 25(1) of the Penal Code states that when any person is sentenced to death, the sentence must direct that he shall be hanged by the neck until he is dead while Article 15 says that a person shall not be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading punishment or other like treatment.

Further, Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7 of the International Covenant on civil and political rights prohibits torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Amnesty International Researcher Africa program Tor-Hugne Olsen said though Zambia has continued to execute people, it did not apply international standards for fair trials in its use of executions which constitutes a major breach of national and International law.

"In any trial, it is important to ensure that legal proceedings conform to international standards for without this there is a risk that innocent people may be wrongly convicted. In death penalty cases, this is clearly of fundamental importance, as the punishment is irrevocable," Olsen said.

He, however, observed that in Zambia an increase in crime was used as the justification for extending the use of death penalty and yet international studies have consistently failed to show that the use of the penalty leads to any significant reduction in serious crimes.

And quoting the report, Olsen stated that deterrence can never be used to justify the state’s taking the life of an individual since Amnesty International believes that there is no justification for the use of the death penalty which Zambia was still using to convince the public that death penalty was a deterrent to crime.

Olsen said although Amnesty welcomes the fact that there has not been a high rate of executions in recent years in Zambia and that no executions have taken place since 1997, the organisation has continued to ask Zambia to abolish the death penalty because everywhere experience showed that executions brutalise those involved in the process.

Inter-African Network for Human Rights and Development [AFRONET] director Ngande Mwanajiti also supported the International organisation in calling for the abolishment of death penalty adding that God alone had the right to take away someone’s life.

Mwanajiti said the court must find other ways of curbing crime other than continuing to take away people’s lives some of whom were innocent because of unfair trials.

He said if Government was a party to the International document on all forms of capital punishment, what stopped them from abolishing the death penalty?

Mwanajiti said in Zambia increase in crime is used as the justification for extending the use of the death penalty.

A section of people talked to say the death penalty can not help to reduce high levels of crimes in the country, adding that a solution to this problem would be life imprisonment.

A Lusaka resident, John Phiri said Zambia is a Christian nation and should not judge others, God alone is the one who is supposed to judge us.

"We can not keep on saying the same thing, if a person commits a crime, he should be given a jail sentence and not be sentenced to death," Phiri said.

Another resident, Mary Chileshe said there has been public debate on the death penalty in Zambia for several years and nothing seems to be working out, "they have continued to violet the most fundamental of human rights, the right to life".

And Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) executive director Sam Mulafulafu said a campaign has to be effected as soon as possible in order to save other people’s lives as it is a wide spread denial of human rights.

Mulafulafu said there must be a need to call for a referendum to amend the Bill of rights though it will cost the government a lot of money to amend one column of the constitution but this is the only solution which can help other people enjoy their right to life.

He said all Non-Governmental Organisations [NGOs] concerned in promoting human rights need to come up with a consensus of how they can convince the government in order to show them that not all were in support of the death penalty.

Mulafulafu attributed high levels of crime in the country to poverty, and has since asked the government to also improve on the economy and create jobs at least for many youths who were loitering in the streets.

LRF intern, Sandra Ndemanga said any genuine human rights activist would not agree to continue taking away other people’s lives for crimes committed merely because the Constitution states so. This particular provision in the Constitution 12 (1) should be abolished, as it serves no real purpose at all since it does not reduce levels of crime.

Ndemanga was, however, quick to say that death penalty was not a matter that can be solved by an individual or a collection of individuals but as a nation we must decide our way forward.

She said in place of death penalty there should be life imprisonment.

She added that once a person is killed, this is irreversible if it is discovered that the person killed was innocent. She said a statute can’t create life and should not therefore take away life.

However, Eunice Kangupwe, a Christian said the Bible supports death penalty. She said in the Old Testament people were sentenced to death.

"Jesus did not at any time condemn the death penalty. He was sentenced to death with two other criminals and this evidence shows that death penalty was used to punish offenders," Kangupwe said.

Nevertheless, Amnesty International maintained that Zambia should abolish the death penalty because the method used was not up to International standards and that it violates the most fundamental human right; the right to life.

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