Human Rights Clinic Monitors and Assesses Fairness of Trial of Anti-Corruption Activists in Zambia as Part of TrialWatch Initiative: A Peek Inside the Process

By: Nicole O’Donnell ’19, Andie Reyes ’20, and Sophie Tarazi ’19, members of the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic’s TrialWatch project team

August 5, 2019 - On September 29, 2017, six activists were arrested in Lusaka, Zambia when they arrived outside Parliament to conduct a peaceful anti-corruption protest. The six activists – Laura Miti, Sean Tembo, Bonwell Mwewa, Lewis Mwape, Mika Mwambazi and the Zambian hip-hop artist Fumba Chama (known professionally as “Pilato”) – had organized the demonstration to protest the government’s purchase of 42 fire trucks for the hefty price of $42 million at a time when the country was facing a national debt crisis.

The Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic monitored the activists’ subsequent trial in late 2018 as part of the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ)’s TrialWatch initiative, with which the Human Rights Clinic has partnered. The Fairness Report on this trial, which we are releasing today, finds that while the judge’s conduct met international standards, the trial was nonetheless unfair as the charges should never have been brought.

At issue in this case was the government’s treatment of activists exercising their right to free speech and to voice their dissent publicly. The activists objected to the $42 million purchase as a misuse of public funds and evidence of widespread government corruption. But before their protest could even begin, the police arrested the activists pursuant to Zambia’s Public Order Act, and prosecutors then brought charges under the Act. These arrests reflect a disturbing trend: organizations like Front Line Defenders have pointed to a “civil society crackdown” by the government, and Amnesty International has documented the Zambian authorities’ increased targeting of human rights defenders, journalists, and opposition leaders.

On December 21, 2018, the High Court of Zambia ruled in favor of the activists, citing the Zambian Constitution’s role in protecting free speech. Judge Mwaka Chigali Mikalile found that “the police did not act professionally and lawfully and indeed they are a major obstacle in the proper administration of the Public Order Act.” Nevertheless, while the conduct of the judge is to be applauded and the trial generally adhered to international human rights standards, as documented in the Fairness Report, this case should never have been brought to trial in the first place. The decision to arrest and prosecute these activists was deeply problematic and is emblematic of the troubling crackdown on critics of the Zambian government.

Our team worked to compile extensive background on the Zambian legal system as well as the facts of the case, which formed the background and context for the Fairness Report released today. Our Human Rights Clinic supervisor, Sarah Mehta, monitored the first hearing in person.  She also interviewed defense counsel and some of the defendants, and met with local advocates in Lusaka. We then worked with local Zambian law students to help prepare them to monitor subsequent hearings. All the monitors logged their observations in the TrialWatch App, which uses a standardized set of questions to facilitate reporting. Our clinic team then collaborated with human rights scholar Beth Van Schaack to evaluate the fairness of the trial and produce the Fairness Report on the basis of an analysis of the App data, the trial monitors’ notes, and the legal and background materials we had prepared.

People around the world should be able to speak freely about their governments without fear of reprisal. Our clinic will continue to partner with TrialWatch to identify trials that pose a significant risk of human rights violations and to monitor such trials, in the hope that we can help hold courts accountable to fair trial standards.

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To read the trial monitoring report of People v. Miti et al. (Zambia 2018), click here. 

For more information about the TrialWatch partnership between the Human Rights Clinic and the Clooney Foundation for Justice, click here.