The Maravi Post

BLANTYRE—Pres Bingu wa Mutharika travels this week to the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State in Ethiopia but a list of grievances about rights violations in Malawi has already been sent to the body by the country's activists.

They petitioned the AU’s Commission on Human and People's Rights whose special rapporteur Reine Alapini-Ganso was in the country recently.

The activists want the commission to put a squeeze on the Mutharika administration "to promote and respect human rights," says a communiqué inked by 20 local rights organisations.

They also worry of "drastic shrinking of political space and general deterioration of civil and political rights and the worsening economic situation."

Earlier, outspoken rights activist John Kapito continued his criticism of the Malawi leadership, saying rights defenders were "living dangerously" because the government has no respect for basic human rights."

Kapito, who chairs the state-funded Malawi Human Rights Committee, said the government also had no respect for the rule of the law, governance practice and sound political leadership.

Last year, he said, was a "hectic and dangerous year for human rights defenders in Malawi.

"Hectic because human rights defenders shouldered a very tedious and heavy responsibility to defend people's rights in the country as the state machinery continuously threatened to violate people's rights wantonly."

Kapito, who is also the executive director of the Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA), was quoted in a speech in Lilongwe when a two-day workshop on Monday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the African Charter on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR).

The workshop, whose product was the communiqué, was organised by the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) in collaboration with the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).

Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi, Eidhammer Asbjorn, took off his hat to rights defenders, saying they were "vital in holding states accountable for legal and political standards they have committed themselves to following."

He said it was "necessary for civil society to monitor human rights fulfillment, report on violations and demand improvements where needed."
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©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment

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