Stop Undermining the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Special Rapporteur, Irene Khan’s Credibility
When we first raised the alarm over growing human rights violations in Zambia, we were vilified, ridiculed, and accused of fabricating falsehoods. But today, as the United Nations Human Rights Council—through its Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Irene Khan—confirms our concerns, our reporting has been vindicated. We also cautioned that Zambia’s ambition to sit on the Human Rights Council would face stiff resistance due to its worsening record. That too has proven true.
Let us be clear: Ms. Khan’s report is not a political attack—it is an accurate and deeply troubling reflection of the state of our democracy. To dismiss it as biased is to insult not only her integrity but also the lived experiences of countless Zambians who face repression for speaking out, organizing peacefully, or daring to criticize those in power. Ms. Khan has no partisan stake in our politics. Her role is grounded in international law and human rights principles, and her findings are objective, methodical, and damning.
Democracy is not the mere ritual of periodic elections. It is the ongoing cultivation of a society where dissent is respected, the press is free, and the judiciary is independent. These pillars are not only weakening—they are collapsing, and the world is watching in dismay.
Complicity of the judiciary in undermining democracy is a self-evident. Late President Edgar Lungu was forced to abandon his retirement in a desperate attempt to save the Patriotic (PF) from decimation by Government unconscionable maneuvers.
The Rapporteur’s observations confirm a dangerous trend: the misuse of penal code offences, cybercrime legislation, criminal libel, and sedition to silence journalists, intimidate opposition voices, and stifle civil society. Arrests without merit, restrictions on peaceful protest, and targeted harassment have become the new normal. Even the treatment of the late President Edgar Lungu reflects this decline, as the state’s heavy-handedness extended to a former Head of State.
Let it be known: defending state overreach is not patriotism. It is complicity in the erosion of the rule of law. Ignoring these warnings is not governance—it is self-sabotage.
Instead of maligning the messenger, the Government must embrace introspection and reform. The Special Rapporteur’s recommendations are not optional niceties—they are the bare minimum expectations of a functioning democracy. Urgent action must be taken to decriminalize defamation, revise restrictive speech laws, implement the Access to Information Act, and guarantee judicial independence.
The promise of human rights, once proudly declared, is now unraveling into a cruel joke. A government that punishes criticism and controls information cannot claim moral authority or international respect.
This is a moment of reckoning. The credibility of Zambia’s democracy is on trial—not in Geneva, but in the eyes of its own people. The UNHCR’s report is not a verdict. It is a final warning. The question now is whether the Government will listen—or continue on the road to repression under the guise of democratic legitimacy.
