As part of our ongoing regional partnerships, Open Parliament Zambia had a working visit from their Zimbabwean counterparts, Open Parliament Zimbabwe.
The visit consisted of two days of fruitful engagements, discussing pertinent topics that affect both Zambia and Zimbabwe. Over the course of the two days, the teams shared knowledge, expertise and experiences on different topics.
A topic of great importance between the two teams was draconian laws and how to survive their enactment. Draconian laws are laws that are unusually harsh, and ultimately infringe on the human rights. Examples of such laws are the Private Voluntary Organizations (PVO) Amendment Bill in Zimbabwe, and the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act in Zambia. Both these laws negatively impact the freedoms of the citizens of the two countries by infringing on freedom of assembly and expression respectively.
While citizens and stakeholders are doing everything possible to prevent the Bill from being passed (or amend the Act, in the case of Zambia) it is important to remember that in repressive regimes, citizens have two options; to sit back and do nothing or to continue to fight against these repressive laws.
While it may seem like citizens have no power, this is seldom the case. There is always opportunity for the members of a nation to use their voices to speak truth to power.
