Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

In early 2000, human rights NGOs came under increasing attack from the government. On January 31 MMD chairperson for information and publicity Vernon Mwaanga warned that AFRONET and the Zambia Independent Monitoring Team (ZIMT) were a "danger to democracy" and could face deregistration if they continued "their irresponsible conduct." On February 2, the minister of information and broadcasting services, Newstead Zimba, warned that the government would take "drastic action" against two NGOs if they did not end their "betrayal" of Zambia. The relationship with human rights NGOs improved later in the year following the consultative group meeting. AFRONET published its third detailed human rights report in 2000.