The Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and Youth and Society (YAS) have urged the government of Malawi to improve its human rights record.

Development Diaries gathered that the call was made following the election of Malawi to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Acting Executive Director of CHRR, Micheal Kaiyatsa, and the Executive Director of YAS, Charles Kajoloweka, in a statement, challenged the Tonse government to take serious steps towards improving its human rights record.

‘By electing Malawi to the HRC, we believe that the UN member states seek to make the government of Malawi more accountable to long-standing human rights issues in the country’, the statement read.

According to Article nine of the resolution, the elected member states to the council ‘shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights, shall fully cooperate with the council and be reviewed under the universal periodic review mechanism during the term of their membership’.

They emphasised that the election of Malawi as a member of the HRC implies that Malawi, henceforth, will have to take concrete, credible steps, and real commitments to fully guarantee the protection and promotion of human rights according to international law.

Source: Nyasa Times

Photo source: Richard Potts