A/HRC/61/50/Add.1 elections. 71 The Special Rapporteur met with representatives of the Zambia Law Development Commission, who informed her that, after extensive consultations with civil society organizations, the Commission had proposed a new bill that was oriented clearly towards upholding the right to peaceful assembly.72 91. The Non-Governmental Organizations Act (Act No. 16 of 2009) was enacted by Parliament on 26 August 2009. Section 10 of the Act created the NGO Registration Board, whose function is to consider and approve applications for registration of NGOs. Representatives of civil society organizations whom the Special Rapporteur met during the country visit expressed concern that the law unduly restricted their activities and subjected them to excessive controls, giving the Board the authority to interfere in their activities. The Non-Governmental Organizations Act (Act No. 16 of 2009) is among the restrictive laws that the present Government has promised to repeal,73 and the Special Rappporteur calls upon the Government to expedite its efforts in this regard. K. Conditions of detention 92. Zambia has a population of almost 20 million people, of whom 26,150 are in detention across 87 prisons and correctional centres.74 The Government states that, through the Zambia Correctional Service, it actively supports and promotes religious activities and worship within correctional centres as a key component of the rehabilitation, spiritual guidance and reformation process for inmates. In 2023, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security and the Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with the Zambia Correctional Service, presented the findings of the second audit of prisons and correctional centres. 75 The Government underlined its commitment to maintaining international standards for correctional centres, which included its domestication of the internationally acclaimed United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) through the Zambia Correctional Services Act of 2022. 93. In terms of worship and religion in detention facilities, the Special Rapporteur is pleased to note that the majority of the inmates interviewed (88%) for the audit reported that all religious groups were allowed to worship freely. More than half (64%) of the inmates reported that they had access to a form of religious centre at a correctional centre. Despite these positive statistics, inmates faced four key problems relating to their right to worship and religion: (a) lack of infrastructure built specifically for religious activities or worship in most correctional centres; (b) inmates being forced to work on weekends at the expense of their right to worship; (c) most places of worship were not accommodative of the needs of persons with disabilities; and (d) female inmates often had no designated place to worship, causing them to worship from spaces designated as worship spaces for male inmates. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Government to implement the recommendations from the 2023 prison audit report in terms of constructing chapels and other religious spaces in correctional facilities and avoiding assigning inmates work on days of worship in order to respect their religious rights. This would be in line with article 19 of the Constitution and rules 211 (1) and 214 of the Zambian Prison Rules as well as with rules 65 and 66 of the Nelson Mandela Rules. 71 72 73 74 75 GE.26-02761 See https://www.zambiadirectory.com/news/new-public-gatherings-bill-to-replace-controversial-actahead-of-2026-elections. See also https://www.acazambia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/SUMMARY-REPORT-ON-THEREVIEW-OF-THE-PUBLIC-ORDER-ACT-2023_compressed.pdf. See https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=sajpd. See also https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/03/29/zambia-repeal-law-restricts-civil-society and https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/zambia. Ibid. See https://www.moj.gov.zm/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/V3-Prison-Audit-Report-FINALNumbered-19.10.20232.pdf. 17