By Lusako Ng’ambi:
The ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social welfare says they have made tremendous progress to ammend the Gender Equality Act as well as Child Care Protection and Justice Act despite facing different challenges in the process.
The ministry’s Deputy Director for Gender Mainstreaming, Ronald Phiri said they have not only drafted the bills but also managed to engage various experts from various sectors.
He made the sentiments during a two-day workshop that took place in Mponera, Dowa
Phiri said going forward, they have intentions to engage top leaders in various relevant institutions to give high level input so that at the end, they should start running advocacy processes to lobby for other actors who are crucial so that Bills should be tabled and passed in Parliament.
Duncan Zikagwa from Ministry of Justice said the review process looks promising as they have managed to write proposal ammendments which will be presented to the ministry of gender for onwards transmission to the ministry of justice for experts to work on the proposed amendments.
Zikagwa said there are gaps that needs to be ammended so that the bills should align with the constitution interms of the definition of a child as well as the penalties provided under the child care protection act against other laws.
” In child care protection and justice act a child is defined as a person under the age of 16, while the constitution says a child is a person under the age of 18 . Even offences under which a child is a victim attract stiffer penalties in other laws like the cyber security act unlike what is provided under the child care act, so we need to marry these so that they speak to each other”, said Zikagwa.
Amref Health Africa Advocacy Officer, Twambilire Mwabungulu said they are supporting the review of these laws and any other activities within the process through their power to youth programme .
Mwabungulu said the power to youth programme is dealing with issues that are being addressed by the proposed amendment acts hence supporting the process.
“We will continue supporting the process to see that the ammendments are done and bills are passed in parliament” , said mwabungulu.
