HRC calls for tangible action on legal reforms

Human Rights Commission Chairperson Mudford Mwandenga has called for tangible action on legal reforms in pursuit of the presidential pronouncement on abolishing the death penalty in Zambia.

Mr. Mwandenga says the policy pronouncement by President Hakainde Hichilema can be actualized through the amendment of penal laws such as the Penal Code Act and the Criminal Procedure Code Act Chapter 88 of the Laws of Zambia through a Referendum.

He says the Death Penalty constitutes the ultimate and irreversible gross violation of human rights which should never be practiced anywhere in the world in the modern era, hence the urgent need for legal reforms to be actualized in implementing the policy.

Meanwhile, Governance Expert McDonald Chipenzi says the Death Penalty is enshrined in the Bill of Rights which makes it mandatory for holding the Referendum because nothing can be amended from the bill of rights without the Referendum.