Delayed Reforms in Zambia Threaten Human Rights Progress

Author: Faryal Fatima

August 13, 2026

HRRC condemns the use of restrictive laws and practices to suppress human rights and civic participation. We support international calls for Zambia to repeal or amend laws that undermine freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and the press. We urge the government to uphold its national and international human rights obligations.

A Zambian woman shows her voting card [Image source: Wikimedia Commons]

Reports out of Zambia show a shocking deterioration toward autocratic practices, endangering the human rights of citizens and weakening general participation in government, as the county holds its general elections on August 13, 2026.

Despite the government's claim of reform, authorities exercise censorship, intimidation, and surveillance under repressive laws and practices that limit free expression, association, and peaceful assembly. The report focuses on shrinking civic space and appeals for urgent reforms to ensure the protection of fundamental rights.

According to a report by Amnesty International, Zambians voted for change in the August 2021 general election, electing opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema and ending Edgar Lungu’s presidency and the Patriotic Front’s decade-long rule. 

Hichilema’s victory raised hopes that his administration would reverse the repression and human rights violations documented under Lungu, including restrictions on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, harassment of opposition figures and journalists. 

However, concerns over restrictions on dissent and civic freedoms have persisted under Hichilema’s administration. In 2025, for example, Parliament enacted the Cyber Security Act and Cyber Crimes Act, which civil society groups said contained provisions that could threaten democratic freedoms and human rights. 

The Amnesty International briefing highlights an alarming increase in human rights abuses and finds that authorities have established conditions that are conducive to abuses ahead of the general elections. The concerns come amid a pre-election environment marked by growing tensions between the government and opposition groups, as well as increasing restrictions on dissent and political participation. 

Human Rights Watch reported that Zambia’s human rights environment in 2025 became increasingly hostile to criticism, dissent and political opposition ahead of the elections.

In its continuous efforts to consolidate control of civil society, the Zambian  parliament is currently deliberating a Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) Bill which will negatively affect the right to freedom of association. If passed, the bill would allow the government to exert influence over the registration, regulation, suspension and dissolution of civil society organizations, directly affecting their independence.

Zambia is a member state of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which includes the right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and also of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights in which the right to freedom of expression is enshrined. 

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) reports that the government is already imposing restrictions on journalists. Mukuka, a local journalist, was arrested and charged under Zambia’s Cyber Crimes Act for publishing an audio recording. He is being held in police custody and faced possible imprisonment, a fine, or both. IFJ condemned the arrest and called for his immediate release.

“As Zambia goes to the polls, the authorities must immediately end the misuse of laws to suppress the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and media freedom. The next government should prioritize repealing or amending laws that are incompatible with Zambia’s Constitution and the country’s international human rights obligations,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.

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Glossary

• Allegation: A statement, made without giving proof, that someone has done something illegal or wrong.

• Autocratic: Demanding that people obey completely, without asking or caring about anyone else's opinions.

• Censorship: The action of preventing part or the whole of a book, film, work of art, document, or other kind of communication from being seen or made available to the public, because it is considered to be offensive or harmful, or because it contains information that someone wishes to keep secret, often for political reasons.

• Civic space: Physical or digital environment that allows people to come together, express their opinions and take action on issues that matter to them.

• Civil society: Refers to the collective of non-governmental organizations, community groups and associations that operate independently of the state and the market.

• Conducive:  The right conditions for something good to happen or exist.

• Consolidate: To become, or cause something to become, stronger and more certain.

• Corruption: A dishonest or illegal behaviour especially by powerful people.

• Criminal defamation: A legal concept under which making a false statement that harms another person’s reputation may lead not only to civil liability, but also to criminal responsibility.

• Deterioration: The fact or process of becoming worse.

• Dissolution: The act or process of ending an official organisation or legal agreement.

• Endangering: To put someone or something at risk. 

• Enshrine: To contact or keep something as if in a holy place.

• Harassment: Behavior that annoys or upsets someone.

• Intimidation: The action of frightening or threatening someone, usually in order to persuade them to do something that you want them to do.

• Regulation: An official rule.

• Repressive: Controlling what people do, especially by force.

• Restrictive: Limiting the freedom of someone or preventing something from growing.

• Safeguard : To protect something from harm.

• Suppress: To end something by force.

• Surveillance: The careful watching of a person or place, especially by the police or army because of a crime that has happened or expected.

• Suspension: The act of stopping something.

• Undermined: To gradually weaken or destroy someone.