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Leave No Girl Behind in Africa

Summary When the head teacher found out that I was pregnant, he called me to his office and told me, “You have to leave our school immediately because you are pregnant.” —Jamida K., Kahama, Tanzania, April 2014 We don’t allow pregnant girls to…
News

Zambia Should Protect Customary Land Rights

Commercial Farmers Abusing Rural People’s Rights

As activists and policymakers from across the globe gather in Washington D.C. for the World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, it’s a good time to reflect on how commercial agriculture leaves peasants landless in Zambia. Esther M. (not…
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News

How Commercial Farms Are Ripping Apart Zambian Communities

Zambian President Edgar Lungu recently reacted to news that commercial farms had forcibly evicted rural residents by insisting that investors properly compensate the displaced and “respect the rule of law.” But so far, no one seems to…
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News

Corporate Self-Regulation Is a Global Crisis

Every few years, a journalist flies to Zambia to write an article about Kabwe, “the world’s most toxic town.” For more than a century, Kabwe was home to an enormous lead smelting plant that belched its dust into the air and poisoned the soil…
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News

Witness: Stripped of Their Brick Home, Living in a Mud House

Zambia’s government should protect families evicted to make way for commercial farms

  When bulldozers destroyed her small home on the cold June morning, Evelyn K. (not her real name), watched, overwhelmed by feelings of loss and hopelessness. She saw the bulldozers level her two-bedroom brick house, making way…
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Report

“Forced to Leave”

Summary The Zambian government regards agriculture as a “panacea” for rural poverty, and the country’s leaders have been promoting agribusiness investments on huge swaths of land. However, flaws in the government’s regulation of commercial…
News

Zambia: Commercial Farms Displace Rural Communities

Poor Government Oversight Enables Forced Evictions

(Lusaka) – The Zambian government is failing to protect the rights of rural residents displaced by large commercial farms in Serenje district, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Some commercial farmers have acquired thousands of…
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Video

Video: Rural Communities Displaced by Commercial Farms in Zambia

The Zambian government is failing to protect the rights of rural residents displaced by large commercial farms in Serenje district. Some commercial farmers have acquired thousands of hectares of land while ignoring legal provisions meant to protect the…
News

“We slept out in the open air like wild animals”

"We slept out in the open air like wild animals. Our children fell sick because of the cold," Felicia K told me. "We had not put up any proper structures. We were using leaves." Felicia, a 52-year-old mother of 10, is one of many rural Zambians who have…
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News

Where is Zambia’s President Heading?

Lungu’s Power-Grab Threatens Freedom and Rights

It seems like Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu is seeking to consolidate his power. Just last week, he seized on the fact that an arsonist had torched the capital Lusaka’s main market, to declare a state of threatened emergency. The…
Zambia's President Edgar Lungu attends a signing ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, February 8, 2016.
News

Zambia: Support International Criminal Court

ICC Crucial for Atrocity Victims, Global Justice

(Nairobi) – Zambia should reaffirm its membership in the International Criminal Court to best advance justice for victims of atrocities, a group of African organizations and international nongovernmental organizations with a presence in Africa said today…
The International Criminal Court premises in The Hague. © 2016 Human Rights Watch
News

Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Zambia

28th session of the UPR

This submission highlights Human Rights Watch’s concerns in Zambia, including developments in relation to the implementation of recommendations from Zambia’s previous Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) in 2012 and 2008. Zambia pledged to support several…
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News

AU's 'ICC Withdrawal Strategy' Less than Meets the Eye

Opposition to Withdrawal by States

The African Union made headlines Tuesday for purportedly agreeing to mass withdrawal from the International Criminal Court. The reality is more complex. The decision by AU member states welcomes the announced withdrawals by South Africa,…
A general view shows the headquarters of the African Union (AU) building in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, January 29, 2017.
News

Africans Speak Out Against ICC Withdrawal

Governments Signal Continued Support for Court

The recent decisions by South Africa, Burundi, and Gambia to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC) are generating wide attention and speculation about a mass exodus from the court by African countries.  But think it’s clear where Africa stands on…
Stella Ndirangu of ICJ Kenya
News

Ban Forced Anal Exams Around World

Abusive “Tests” for Homosexual Conduct Violate Rights

(Geneva) – Forced anal examinations on men and transgender women accused of consensual same-sex conduct have been reported in at least eight countries in the last five years, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. These examinations lack…
Poster by Shams, a Tunisian activist group, condemning the use of forced anal exams.
News

Dispatches: Girls Speak Out against Child Marriage

Empowerment Key to Ending Africa’s Child Bride Problem

Elizabeth is a vivacious secondary school student at Lusaka Girls School in Zambia. She has an infectious smile, but when she recounts what happened to one of her relatives her grin vanishes. Her relative “Alice” was married aged about 15, after her…
Students at the Lusaka Girls School in Zambia who participate in an empowerment club run by Girls Not Brides member Continuity Zambia.
News

Africa Rulings Move LGBT Rights Forward

Jurist Guest Columnists Anneke Meerkotter of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre and Graeme Reid of Human Rights Watch discuss how recent court rulings in Botswana, Kenya and Zambia illustrate significant progress in human rights in general and in LGBT…
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Submission to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

  Human Rights Watch welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ (“the Committee”) for its Day of General Discussion on the right to education for persons with disabilities. Human Rights Watch…
News

People with Disabilities Must Be Counted in the Fight Against HIV

 Jane is a young Zambian mother with a physical disability in Lusaka, who uses a wheelchair to get around. She does not let clinics without ramps or without wheelchair accessible toilets and equipment stop her from claiming her right to health care,…