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The Zambian government has agreed to "domesticate" the standards of the international Convention against Torture into domestic law, according to a press release by the UN office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The UN's Committee against Torture concluded its consideration on Tuesday of a report by the Zambian government which committed the country to translate the standards of the convention into international law "as a matter of priority", and that a specific definition of the crime of torture would be established.
Committee members on Monday had noted a "lack of consonance" between the Zambian legal regime and the convention. They decried, for example, the admissibility in court of evidence extracted under torture, leading to "widespread" maltreatment of suspects by police officers.
Zambia, as one of the 126 states party to the Convention against Torture, is required to present periodic reports to the committee of national efforts to put the convention's provisions into effect. Government delegations generally appear before the committee during the consideration of such reports to answer questions and provide additional information.
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