Bodies skeptical on Malawi’s rights report to UN
The report was submitted on Saturday March 31 2012, according to Ministry of Justice spokesperson Apoche Itimu.
But some local human rights bodies, including the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC), have expressed doubt on whether the report gives a true reflection of the human rights situation in the country after government left out several violations in its draft report.
In an interview yesterday, MHRC chairperson John Kapito said they have not seen the final document presented by government.
“There are so many issues that we recommended in the report,†he said.
Asked whether he is confident the report is a true reflection of the situation in Malawi, Kapito said: “It is not a question of trusting, but seeing it. However, if some issues have not been included, the UN Human Rights Committee will question their report because as MHRC we submitted an alternative report.â€
Centre for Development of People (Cedep) executive director Gift Trapence, who also worked on civil society organisations (CSOs) recommendations, said the draft report government presented for their input had several gaps.
Issues absent in the draft included the death of a Polytechnic student, Robert Chasowa, police brutality, arbitrary arrests, threats to the media, crackdown on human rights defenders and enactment of bad laws.
Itimu in an interview, however, said most recommendations made during the drafting of the report were taken on board.
“That is why we gave CSOs a forum. However, this does not mean we include each and every issue. Some issues are based on wrong facts and we only include those issues with right facts,†she said.
The Malawi ICCPR report was due in March 1995, but government was not cooperating with the UN Human Rights Committee, forcing the committee to assess human rights situation in the country based on shadow reports from CSOs.
