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The Non-governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council (NGOCC) has urged the government to domesticate the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) standards for correctional facilities, arguing that the move would strengthen the protection of the rights and dignity of female inmates across Zambia.
NGOCC Executive Director, Anne Mbewe-Anamela, said the country should build on recent reforms in the correctional system by aligning national laws and policies with international standards governing the treatment of women deprived of their liberty.
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The organisation’s appeal follows the relocation of more than 140 female inmates from Lusaka Central Correctional Facility to the newly operationalised Mwembeshi Female Correctional Facility, a development NGOCC hailed as a significant milestone in improving conditions for incarcerated women.
Anamela, however, stressed that the progress should not end there, calling on government to replicate similar reforms in correctional facilities nationwide and fully integrate CEDAW principles into domestic legislation to safeguard women’s rights.
She noted that the recommendation echoed concerns raised in NGOCC’s 2022 report on Promoting Accountability in the Universal Periodic Review for Women’s Participation in Zambia, which found that conditions for women and children living in correctional facilities fell below internationally accepted minimum standards and called for legal reforms to better protect their rights.
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