29 April 2011
The Government has said it is committed to meeting the United Nations (UN) standard minimum rules which require it to implement legislation providing for community service orders as an alternative to imprisonment.
Copperbelt Province Permanent Secretary, Villie Lombanya said this yesterday during a workshop on the pilot programme to implement community service sentencing organised by the Zambia Law Development Commission at Musamani Lodge in Ndola.
He said the UN standard minimum rules for non-custodial sentences, also referred to as the Tokyo rules, required member States to develop non-custodial measures within their legal system to provide other options and reduce the use of imprisonment.
Mr Lombanya said the rules also required member States to rationalise criminal justice policies, taking into account the observance of human rights, the requirements of social justice and the rehabilitation needs of offenders.
He said the introduction of community service as a non-custodial sentence was a worldwide initiative as an alternative to imprisonment and therefore, a means of decongesting prisons.
“As you are aware, custodial sentences have resulted in difficulties in managing prison population.
“This has been a concern for the Government and therefore, the success of the new programme will go a long way in mitigating these difficulties,” he said.
Mr Lombanya said the Government was anxious to see the implementation of community service sentencing, which was long overdue.
He thanked Zambia Law Development Commission for the work it had undertaken so far on its research on how best to implement the legislation providing for community service orders as an alternative to imprisonment and its commitment in coming up with a dissemination programme to all nine provinces of Zambia.
And Zambia Law Development Commission deputy director, Joyce Shezongo-Macmillan said the commission had started a pilot project on implementation of community sentencing legislation.
She said the commission had since undertaken research and comparative study tours and was ready to disseminate the findings of its study and the comparative study tours that were undertaken to three countries.
Ms Macmillan said the commission hoped to facilitate a process of generating recommendations for the implementation of the law on community service sentencing and that the successful pilot project would ultimately pave way for reduced prison population.
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State Committed to UN’s ‘Tokyo Rules’