Luo cries for children in prison for crimes of their mothers

Gender and Child Development Minister Nkandu Luo says there is an urgent need to formulate legislation that will look at the rights of children whose mothers are incarcerated.

Professor Luo says some children who are in prison are subjected to unhealthy environment simply because their mothers are serving jail sentences.

Professor Luo says that is a total abuse of children’s rights and calls for quick intervention.

Speaking during the launch of the University of Zambia Masters, PHD and Research for capacity Building in Law in Lusaka, Professor Lungu says it is a total abuse of children’s rights and has called for quick intervention in their plight.

And Professor Luo says it is unfortunate that women have continued to be tortured psychologically by men.

She notes that 98 percent of women at Chainama Mental Hospital are as a result of psychological torture by men.

Speaking at the same event, University of Zambia Vice Chancellor Professor Stephen Simukanga says apart from providing scholarship towards further research and training in Gender and Human Rights in the School of Law, the project will also provide opportunities for capacity development elsewhere in the university.

In a Speech read on his behalf by Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Bizeck Phiri, Professor Simukanga says another component of the project will cover the curriculum review of the current Gender Blind Law curricula particularly at undergraduate level.

The project is initiated by the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED) and UNZA for capacity building in Law faculties aimed at mainstreaming gender, non-discrimination, human rights and social economic rights frameworks and analysis into the application and administration of the law.