HRC disturbed by Sunday’s harassment of female police officer

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) says it is deeply disturbed at the reported physical and indecent harassment of a female police officer allegedly by a senior government official during the just ended Under 20 AFCON tournament at Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.

Commission Chairperson Mudford Mwandenga in a statement says the reported case of physically and indecently victimizing a female police officer, hardly a week after commemorating the International Women’s Day, is quite disappointing to the human rights fraternity and must be profoundly condemned.

Mr. Mwandenga says the commission is particularly concerned that the reported human rights violation was allegedly committed by a senior government officer, against a law enforcement officer, and four days after the reported abuse, neither a concrete action against the suspected perpetrator has been undertaken nor an official statement issued from the Zambia Police Service.

Mr. Mwandenga says this is not the way in which the Zambia Police Service is publicly known to operate in normal circumstances.

He says the Commission is aware of many cases where individuals have been arrested, detained and charged with an offence of obstructing the Police from executing their duties and that the police officer was executing her official duty of enforcing law and order when she was not only obstructed, but also physically and indecently manhandled.

He says the HRC is raising this concern because there were a number of police officers within the vicinity of the alleged scene of crime, and the case was officially reported at Matero Police Station, but regrettably, no concrete steps seem to have so far been undertaken to ensure that justice is done.

The Human Rights Commission Chairperson has since called for thorough, fair and impartial investigations of the alleged violation in order for justice to be done.