UN official in Zambia to discuss prison conditions
Xinhua, October 28, 2015 Adjust font size:
A senior United Nations (UN) official is in Zambia to hold discussions with judges and senior officials in the judiciary as well as prison authorities on the rights of prisoners and conditions of the country's prisons.
Zhuldyz Akisheva, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) regional representative, who arrived in the country on Monday held her first talks with Minister of Home Affairs Davies Chama on Tuesday where she promised that her organization will work with Zambia to improve prison situations.
She said overcrowding in prisons is not only a problem for Zambia but a global problem and that it requires urgent measures to deal with it.
Prisons and justice, she said, constitute are serious human rights issues, hence countries should put in place measures to improve prison conditions.
"There is need to prevent overcrowding. Some people who end up in prison do not have to be in prison," she said.
She further said countries should put in place measures to deal with prisoners once they leave prison because most of them end up going back to prisons because they are not accepted in society and have nothing to do.
She has since expressed optimism that the dialogue she will have with judiciary authorities as well as judges will bear positive results.
On his part, the Zambian minister expressed government's commitment to improve prison conditions in the country.
The UNODC has developed a global paper on crises in prisons, which looks at the minimum standards of treatment of convicts.
The situation in Zambian prisons has of late come under spotlight following revelations by prison authorities that the country's prisons were not fit for human habitation.
Percy Chato, the head of the Zambia Prison Service said the current condition in the prisons is a crisis, resulting in some instances where 100 inmates share one toilet.
According to him, the country's prisons were built for a population of 8,150 but were currently accommodating about 19,000 inmates, leading to congestions. Endit