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NEW BILL OF RIGHTS NEEDED FOR FULL RIGHTS OF WOMEN, SAYS JCTR

March 2008

“Financing for Gender Equality in Zambia is something that requires a new Bill of Rights in a new Constitution,” says the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR).  This year’s theme for International Women’s Day in Zambia is very important indeed, but will be impossible to implement fully unless Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) are put into the new Constitution to be adopted by the National Constitutional Conference (NCC).

The JCTR has undertaken a nation-wide campaign to assure that the NCC listens to the voice of the people, already expressed through the Mung’omba Constitutional Commission, that the new Constitution must contain a new Bill of Rights which includes the ESCR.  Petitions demanding this that are now being signed by thousands of Zambian citizens and will be presented to the NCC when it reconvenes in April.

Part VI of the Mung’omba Draft is very clear in speaking of “special measures aimed at achieving equality between women and men.” (Part VI, No. 80) These include measures with respect to the participation of women in economic benefits.  This would apply, of course, to the measures necessary to secure “financing for gender equality.”

JCTR Director Peter Henriot, says “Zambia’s current Bill of Rights was drawn up by the British prior to Independence and does not include the all-important economic, social and cultural rights, rights of women and children, and rights of the differently-abled.”  That is why the JCTR – joined by many civil society organisations and churches -- is campaigning for a new Bill of Rights. 

“Surely the celebration of Women’s Day this year,” says Henriot, “will be an excellent opportunity to demand that the NCC really take seriously its responsibility to adopt a Constitution that guarantees the rights of all citizens and pays specific attention to the rights of women.”