Zambia Accepts Several Universal Periodic Review Recommendations Sourced to Input from the Center for Reproductive Rights

In November 2012, the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group  released its recommendations on Zambia. The Center submitted a letter to the Working Group back in April 2012 detailing existing problems with reproductive rights guarantees along with proposals for courses of action. We were gratified to see our input incorporated into three official recommendations that Zambia’s government accepted. It has agreed to:

• Allocate specific funding within its health budget for maternal and reproductive health, increase its national budget in the areas of health to ensure that its health facilities meet the required standards with regard to equipment and services, ensure free access to health facilities to the needy, and strengthen its efforts to reduce maternal mortality rates.


• Strengthen its efforts to combat violence against women, including by enacting and implementing necessary legislation and measures to ensure proper investigation and prosecution of sexual violence, thereby promoting access to remedy for victims, ensure effective implementation of the Anti-Gender Based Violence Act with particular focus on victims’ access to justice, and strengthen training for the judiciary and law enforcement personnel to enhance their capacity to respond effectively to cases of violence against women and girls.


• Pursue efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic, particularly by the implementation of a national strategic plan to fight against this pandemic, and continue strengthening measures to address and lessen the HIV/AIDS impact on women and children, particularly vertical transmission.

Members of the Working Group offered specific recommendations on how to meet these goals, including several to reduce gender-based violence.

The government has deferred action on several other proposals submitted by the Center. These will be taken up in March 2013.

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Download the Center’s Letter to the Human Rights Council below.

Click here to download the Human Rights Council: Draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of Zambia >,