Why is it difficult to get to the people and let them have a say in the expansion of our Bill of Rights – New Dawn Questuoned
…..Do things systematically and Stop climbing trees from the top….
Parliament News, 16th December, 2022 (SMART EAGLES)
Opposition Whip who is also Shiwang’andu Member of Parliament Hon. Stephen Kampyongo has yet again called on the UPND Government to give Zambians an opportunity to contribute to the refining of the Constitution.

The Former Minister said this when he debated the motion on the floor of the House to Adopt a report of the committee on Legal Affairs.
“The mover of the motion in his submission he is telling the house that out of 44 member states of the African Union only 33 have ratified the protocol establishing the court, and out of this 33 only 8 member states have deposited the declaration recognizing the incompetence of the court to receive cases, this should be the basis of our discourse. Why these numbers since 1998 and if by ratification we are only joining the 25 then this exercise is in futility or rather an academic exercise”.

Hon. Kampyongo stated that as already Debated by other Members in the House some of the rights enshrined in the charter such as Social, Economic and Cultural are yet to be enshrined in the our constitution.

The Former Minister further took the house back to the debates on the amendment of the Penal code that was ably debated by the opposition Members all with a call to call for another referendum so that people of Zambia can have a say in the amendment of the laws that govern us.

“This again takes me back to the debate I gave in this house when we were dealing with the amendments to the penal code and criminal procedure code that let’s be systematic by providing an opportunity to deal with part 3 of the Constitution so that these rights we are promoting are anchored in our constitution.

The Hon. Minister was reminded that “even after this ratification is done there is also another requirement to join the 8 who have deposited the declaration and international instruments. But before you do that you have to demonstrate what you have done on local legislation and the committees submission is clear that for any cases to be taken to this African Court we must exhaust the local remedies. So how ready are we in this regard? We shouldn’t just be seen ratifying protocols as a way of International public relations they must be practiced!”
He emphatically stated that the Patriotic Front agrees with government in the promotion of social, economic and cultural rights of our citizens but we need to be systematic.

The parliamentarian further highlighted the benefits of Zambia being part of this African Court but called on Government to be systematic in dealing with judicial matters.

“Let’s just get to agree that it’s time we provided an opportunity to revisit that missed opportunity by getting back to our people to expand the bill of rights. We can start from the top going down it’s like climbing a tree from the top. As you are dealing with constitution reforms include the aspect for us to get to the people and let the people participate in expanding the bill of rights then it will be meaningful to join 8 at the AU”.