UN Committee Against Torture probes government

Zambia has faced hard questions by the UN's Committee Against Torture over the lack of legal protection of suspects against maltreatment by the police, a statement by the Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights said. The Committee against Torture began consideration on Monday of an initial report by the Zambian government, questioning a government delegation on the lack of a domestic law defining and prohibiting torture. "Committee members also asked why a study had not been carried out prior to Zambia's ratification of the Convention against Torture to assess the compatibility of Zambian legislation with the standards of the treaty," the statement said. "They said that was the usual practice, and noted that there was an extensive 'lack of consonance' between the Zambian legal regime and the Convention, decrying, for example, a current situation in which - the report admitted - evidence extracted by torture was admissible in court, leading to widespread maltreatment of suspects by police officers, and corporal punishment of prisoners was allowed," the statement added. Zambia, as one of the 126 states party to the Convention against Torture, is required to present periodic summations to the Committee on national efforts to put the Convention's provisions into effect. The government delegation said: "the compilation of the report had been an 'eye-opener' for the government, as it had made apparent various legal and administrative shortcomings". In the year since the report was submitted, steps had been taken to address some of those problems, the delegation said. These included the creation of a police complaint authority, amendments to the penal code and, in cooperation with UNICEF, a Juvenile Justice Administration Scheme to improve the handling of juveniles who came into contact with the criminal justice system. Steps were also taken to improve food and clothing and reduce overcrowding in prisons; to attack government corruption; and to develop a prosecutions policy which would make prosecutions more humane, the statement said. The Rapporteur on the situation in Zambia, Andreas Mavrommatis, described the government's report as frank, and an indication that there was political will "to do the right thing".