Lilongwe, May 20, 2015: The Malawi Government has rejected from 41 state parties of the United Nations, recommendations that suggest decriminalisation of homosexuality and activation of the death penalty.
This was disclosed in Lilongwe Wednesday by the country’s Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Samuel Tembenu, who led the delegation that went to Geneva, Switzerland, where Malawi underwent a 2nd Cycle of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council from 5 to 8 May.
Tembenu described the UPR as a unique process involving a periodic review of human rights records of all 193 UN member States relating to the fulfillment by each state of its human rights obligations and commitments.
“199 recommendations were received from State Parties out of which 145 have enjoyed the support of the Government of Malawi, 41 were rejected and 13 recommendations will need further consultations,” said Tembenu adding; “The majority of those rejected broadly concern the issue of death penalty and that of same sex relationship.”
He said Government’s position on the rejected issues was that Malawians are not yet ready and that Malawians needed more time to debate freely and at length before any laws on the same could be made formal in the constitution.
He disclosed that among contents of the rejected recommendations, the State Parties proposed that Malawi should remove all sections of the constitution that suggest criminalisation of the same sex relationships.
“Government is therefore challenging Civil Society Organisations to carry out extensive civic education across the nation to enable the general populace to contribute to the ultimate decision concerning these issues,” explained the Justice Minister further adding that both those in support and in opposition should be given the necessary support to freely articulate their respective view points.
Among members of the delegation to Geneva were representatives from Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC), Ministry of Gender, Disability, Children and Social Welfare; and UN Women.
