One of the Malawi’s renowned vernacular theatre groups, Kwathu drama group says it is joining the band wagon campaigners advocating for equal rights by taking part in promoting rights of the minority groups in the country through performances. Assistant director for the group Charles Mphoka said after a show at Zuc lodge in eastern region […]
The Malawi Human Right Commission (MHRS) has asked Government to speed up the enactment of the Compulsory Education bill if more children including girls who are prone to early marriages are to be lured back into school. Members of Parliament (MPs) referred back the bill to the parliamentary committee on education to iron put some […]
Malawi rights groups have raised concerns over growing homophobia against sexual minorities. The nation’s laws have outlawed same-sex relationships since colonialism under Britain, and a sodomy conviction carries a 14-year prison sentence. But there has been a debate to decriminalize homosexuality which has received resistance from faith group and traditional leaders. The Centre for Human […]
Two elderly women from Mlembe village in the area of Traditional Authority Chowe in Malawi’s southern district of Mangochi are complaining about sexual harassment they recently underwent when ‘caught’ fetching firewood by the game rangers at Liwonde National Park. The women Akuziona Mbila and Ngayime Ndaona told Nyasa Times that they met their fate when they accompanied […]
Parliamentary Chief Whip for opposiiton United Democratic Front (UDF), Dr Clement Chiwaya has said heavy handedness by police officers towards leaders of opposition parties will dent the human rights record of the Joyce Banda administration. Recently, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) penned the Inspector General of Police, Lot Dzonzi, expressing concern over what it has called […]
President Joyce Banda has said in one year she has been in office after taking over form authotatalian rule of late Bingu wa Mutharika, her administration has repealed most of the oppressive laws that impinged on peoples’ freedoms and rights. Banda, delivering the State of the National Address at the New Parliament Building in Lilongwe, […]
Faced with increasing incidents of commercial sex workers’ abuse at the hands of Police, human rights NGO has embarked on a fascinating project that will see the sex workers calling a toll free line for assistance. Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA) executive director Victor Mhango told Nyasa Times in an exclusive interview that the […]
Human rights campaigners have criticized ‘heavy-handed’ Malawi Police officer who went to the offices and hostels of Chancellor College of the University of Malawi in Zomba during student demonstrations against high tuition and low allowances firing teargas anyhow. Chipulumutso Asabuni a student who was assaulted by Police after he had tried to rescue a blind student […]
Malawi has committed to examine its national tax laws and policies towards preventing illicit capital flight. Currently, Malawi ranks 75th out of 143 countries for largest average illicit financial flow estimates for 2001 to 2010. Malawi has lost USD 4,691 million between 2001 and 2010 due to illicit financial flows where Companies and individuals are […]
Youth Net and Counseling (YONECO) has embarked on awareness campaigns in the districts of Phalombe and Zomba aiming at sensitizing the community members on their right to development through citizen participation and engagement using theatre for development. The awareness campaign, which is conducted in the area of T /A Nkhumba, is being conducted with funding […]
A report on the monitoring of prisons in Malawi by the Malawi Human Rights Commission 9MHRC), for the period between December 2011 and March 2012 has revealed that 79 prisoners died due to a number of causes. According to the report three prisoners in Mangochi died in cells while another in Nsanje died at the […]
Malawi Government has not acted to Constitutional Court order to improve poor conditions in country’s prison, which were described as violation of human rights , Nyasa Times has established. The Constitutional Court in Lilongwe on September 10, 2011 acting on judicial review application by one of in-mates, Gable Masangano, gave government 18 months to reduce […]
Malawi Catholic bishops have condemned homosexuality in a pastoral statement released on Sunday, saying it is sinful practices which shouldn’t be tolerated in a God fearing nation like Malawi. “The Church maintains that while the homosexual orientation is disordered, it is not sinful in itself. However, once a person with this orientation or indeed a […]
Zimbabwe government has hired a Malawian prolific hangman who is expected to execute about 76 inmates on death row, two of them women, after a seven-year hiatus. Since the last hangman retired in 2005, Zimbabwe has not executed any prisoners. But state-run Herald newspaper reported that the post has been filled by a Malawian executioner. […]
Amid advanced discrimination and stigma, a Malawian woman has come into the open and made a rare declaration that she has been a lesbian for some years. The Lilongwe based 23-year-old Mercy Kumwenda said she had decided to come out in the open as the first step to getting society to accept that lesbians exist […]
Malawi is one of the countries that have made the biggest improvement on the Reporters Without Borders 2013 World Press Freedom Index, climbing up by 71 positions s from 146 to 75 since last year. According to Reporters Without Borders, Malawi has improved since the change of politics after the death of late president Bingu wa Mutharika and […]
The chronology of our medical infrastructure’s decay has always been there, but like the proverbial man staring at a flying arrow, we have let our eyes be pierced by the grim and sober reality in the form of a desperate plea by medical doctors at Kamuzu Central Hospital. In 2004, when my 18-month old son […]
The Malawi Law Society (MLS) has commented on reports that that public hospitals, especially district and referral centers in the country, have run out of 95 percent of essential drugs, saying the development is not only deplorable, unacceptable and inexcusable, but also outright unconstitutional. In a statement made available to Nyasa Times, MLS said will […]