“Authorities must release all political detainees, respect fundamental freedoms, and restore democratic accountability.” The demand came on Wednesday, September 2, from Gina Romero, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to peaceful assembly and association, in a statement issued in Geneva. Her target was Zambia, almost three weeks after a presidential and parliamentary election that the losing side says was rigged.
Romero described a country in which the crackdown on the political opposition has hardened since polling day. Reports reaching her, she said, point to systemic violence and widespread intimidation, and to the arrest of hundreds of opposition supporters. Many were held longer than the law allows, without formal charges. Some who were charged received what she called disproportionate counts.
The most serious case involves Brian Mundubile, the senior leader of the opposition alliance, and his running mate Makebi Zulu. Both face treason charges, which Romero called “concocted”. Treason carries the death penalty under Zambian law. Zambia Monitor reported that she warned the charges set a dangerous precedent for political persecution.
President Hakainde Hichilema and his party won the vote of 13 August. Mundubile claims the count was manipulated. Romero pointed to documented voter intimidation, assaults and abductions around the poll, and said the violence and loss of life, including that of a former cabinet minister and a polling agent, “requires immediate international scrutiny”.
The minister was Mutotwe Kafwaya. After the results came out, government forces raided a house, and gunfire was exchanged. Kafwaya was fatally wounded. Eleven people were arrested at the scene, among them senior opposition figures, and accused of planning a coup with the help of foreign militia. They deny it. UN human rights chief Volker Türk voiced concern at the time and urged the authorities “to stop arresting people arbitrarily”.
A longer pattern
Romero did not treat the election as a one-off. “This crisis reflects a broader pattern of shrinking civic space,” she said. By her account, Zambia has seen arbitrary arrests, disproportionate charges, including sedition and espionage, and curbs on peaceful assembly for several years. She said these breach the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Zambia Monitor added that her office had raised concerns about attacks on political opponents in a communication to the government before the vote.
She also cited the government’s de facto cancellation of RightsCon, a summit on human rights and technology that was due to bring together more than 5,000 attendees in May. According to Zambia Monitor, the event in Lusaka was scrapped days before it was meant to start, and Romero linked this to administrative withdrawal and alleged foreign political pressure.
Her wider point was about who gets to speak. “A healthy democracy requires that all voices, including opposition members, religious leaders, civil society actors, and journalists, speak freely without fear,” she said. She added that she remained in contact with Zambian authorities and called on them to stop criminalising political dissent.
The setting makes the allegations awkward for Lusaka. Zambia has handed power over peacefully since it returned to multiparty politics in 1991. Romero, like other UN special rapporteurs, serves in her own capacity and receives no salary from the UN or any other organisation.
Sources
- Repression of political opposition surges in post-election Zambia — Global Issues
- UN Special Rapporteur urges Zambia to end post-election crackdown, free detainees | Zambia Monitor
