Infringement on democracy, human rights and the rule of law through constitutional amendments: What mechanisms exist to restore Zambia?
Posted: 4 December, 2019 Filed under: Juliet Nyamao | Tags: African Charter on Democracy, Amendment Bill 2019, constitution, Constitution of Zambia, constitutional amendments, democratic changes, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), ECOWAS, Elections and Governance, EU, international treaties, political pluralism, SALC, The Gambia, Zambia Leave a comment
Author: Juliet Nyamao
Human Rights Attorney, Kenyan Bar
The first Constitution of the Republic of Zambia (1964) established a multiparty system of government. However, increasing tensions between the ruling party and the opposition parties compelled the first president of the Republic of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, to institutionalise a one-party rule through the enactment of the Constitution of Zambia Act, 1973. The presidential rule in Zambia was reinforced, with the president as the sole player on the political scene. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war in the early 1990s, a wave of multiparty democracy swept across the African continent leading to emergence of political pluralism. Many countries in the Southern African region adopted constitutional dispensations that allowed political pluralism and cemented the roles of the different branches of governments. Zambia, a former British colony, was no exception to the wind of change; they adopted their new Constitution of Zambia, 1991 that restored multiparty democracy. Thereafter, the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Act No. 2 of 2016 spelt out the roles and mandates of the different branches of government and directed that all State organs and State institutions abide by and respect the sovereign will of the people of Zambia. This Constitution ensured separation of powers between the various branches of the government, which is crucial to uphold democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
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Why has the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive not been applied during the migration crisis in order to receive Syrians and other asylum seekers?
Posted: 10 June, 2016 Filed under: Clara Burbano-Herrera | Tags: asylum, civil war, Council of the European Union, Directive on Temporary Protection, EU, EU states, European Asylum Support Office, European Commission, Europol, Frontex, immigration, irregular border crossings, Kosovo, Mediterranean, migrants, migration crisis, refugees, Syria, Turkey, UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, war, Yugoslavia 1 Comment
Author: Clara Burbano-Herrera
Fulbright Fellow, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University; Visiting researcher, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg); and FWO Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Human Rights Centre, Ghent University
The EU Border Agency Frontex indicates that a total of 1.83 million irregular border crossings were detected at the EU’s external borders in 2015, compared to 283 500 in 2014. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 1 015 078 people reached Europe irregularly in 2015 by crossing the Mediterranean, while a further 3 771 are believed to have drowned attempting the same journey. The main country of origin of applicants in EU+ countries (the 28 EU Member States as well as Norway and Switzerland) was Syria.
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