The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) says it is imperative for the country to reexamine treason and sedition offences and assess whether their continued application is in tandem with Malawi\u2019s democratic set-up.<\/p>\n
In a statement on the recent arrest of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) officials, the Commission\u2019s Chairperson, Justin Dzonzi, said although treason and sedition laws are not unique to Malawi, certain aspects of these offences pose a serious threat on democratic principles, including human rights.<\/p>\n
Between Sunday and Tuesday this week, MCP spokesperson Jessie Kabwila, Adviser on Legal Affairs Peter Chakhwantha and Ulemu Msungama of Central Region Committee were arrested on sedition and treason charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scope of acts which may constitute treason or sedition covers a wide range of acts which form the very bedrock of democracy. The offence of sedition in particular is overbroad and lacks sufficient guidance as to what conduct constitutes and what conduct does not constitute an offence under that section, regard being had to the right to freedom of expression and other rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Commission also notes that the offences of treason and sedition as spelt out in the law are in some respects, too wide and dangerously vague and would easily be abused. The offences are also liable to political manipulation,\u201d Dzonzi said.<\/p>\n
He said the government needs to tread carefully on the use of treason and sedition laws particularly when the allegations involve fellow political officials belonging to other political parties.<\/p>\n
Dzonzi said the Commission has carried out a fact-finding exercise on the matter and will carry on with extensive investigations to examine the human rights implications that arise and provide necessary recommendations to relevant authorities, as well as, where appropriate facilitating remedial actions.<\/p>\n
While saying the Commission keeps getting conflicting versions of the events from the concerned authorities as well as the parties involved, Dzonzi said the Commission notes that the developments raise a number of critical legal and human rights issues to be considered.<\/p>\n
He said the manner and the timing of three politicians\u2019 arrests raise serious issues with respect to the openness of the human rights space in Malawi.<\/p>\n
This, according to Dzonzi, is the Commission\u2019s view given previous experiences under different administrations where similar arrests have been orchestrated as a way of suppression of critics or dealing with dissent.<\/p>\n
The Commission has urged the Malawi Police Service to not only maintain, but be seen to maintain the highest degree of professionalism and independence at all times.<\/p>\n
\u201cSubjection of persons to arrests imposes significant restrictions on their fundamental rights and freedoms, hence the high degree of responsibility that is imposed on arresting authorities to ensure that arrests are affected on sufficient justifiable grounds and in a manner that duly complies with applicable laws, and respects attendant rights and fundamental freedoms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere the Police acts in a manner that compromises these applicable human rights and legal standards, the Police risk undermining their authority, creating a situation suspect of arbitrariness and heavy-handedness, being construed as falling prey to external influences and manipulation and pursuing ulterior motives,\u201d Dzonzi said.<\/p>\n
The Commission further observes that the access by the Police of telephone conversations of the accused persons through social media platform raises implications for the right to privacy and freedom of expression guaranteed in sections 21 and 35 of the Constitution respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly, the WhatsApp group said to be the source of information on which the Police have based the arrests, was among a closed private group. The Commission is reminding the Police to operate in a manner that respects peoples\u2019 right to privacy within the parameters provided in section 21 of the Constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the right to privacy and freedom of expression like most rights can be limited or restricted, such limitations or restrictions should be within the permissive parameters and not arbitrary or unlawful,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n
In the statement, the Commission is also calling on politicians and the general public at large to ensure at all times that the exercise of human rights should not in any way whatsoever be used as a mechanism for sanctioning criminal, unlawful conduct or undemocratic tendencies.<\/p>\n
The Commission also cautioned government to ensure that the rising trend pointing to the shrinking of the civil space does not degenerate into the situations of utter excesses of power by state agencies, unlawful means of dealing with critics and the human rights violations.<\/p>\n
\u201cExperience should be the best teacher, and Malawi should avert another course in its history of excesses and abuses of power. The highest degree of tolerance must reign and the responsibility for this squarely rests with all the people of Malawi individually and collectively,\u201d Dzonzi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) says it is imperative for the country to reexamine treason and sedition offences and assess whether their continued application is in tandem with Malawi\u2019s democratic set-up. In a statement on the recent arrest of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) officials, the Commission\u2019s Chairperson, Justin Dzonzi, said although treason and sedition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19654,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19651\/revisions\/19654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}