HUMAN RIGHTS, NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE UN’S DANGEROUS DOUBLE STANDARDS: WHY TRUMP IS RIGHT
I increasingly understand why President Donald Trump has taken such a hard line towards parts of the international system. International institutions cannot demand respect from sovereign nations while practising selective outrage, misstating national laws or treating some countries as though their sovereignty matters less than that of others.
The United Nations was established in 1945 after a world that had catastrophically failed humanity. Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. Jews were demonised, dispossessed, transported in trains, confined in ghettos and systematically annihilated. I have been to Auschwitz in Poland. I have stood where Jews were murdered. I have confronted that history with my own eyes.
The UN did not exist during the Holocaust, but precisely because it came afterwards, where does it place the lessons of the Holocaust when it judges Israel and the Jewish people today? Where does it place centuries of expulsions, pogroms, persecution and antisemitism? Where does it place the historical reality that when Jews were defenceless and depended upon others for their protection, that protection repeatedly failed them?
This history does not place Israel above international law, but it explains why the Jewish people will never again outsource responsibility for their survival. Never Again is not merely a slogan. It is a lesson written in Jewish blood.
That is also why I passionately hate tribal hatred. I hate the politics that teaches one community to blame another for its problems. I hate the deliberate setting of tribe against tribe. Zambia saw the danger of this politics during the PF era, particularly from 2015 to 2021. Hakainde Hichilema was attacked not merely as an opposition politician. His Tonga identity and Southern Province became part of an ugly political discourse. Senior political figures were publicly accused of advancing the idea that Zambia was not ready for a Tonga President.
When somebody’s tribe becomes an argument against his eligibility to lead his own country, the Republic itself is being wounded. No Bemba owns Zambia. No Tonga owns Zambia. No tribe owns Zambia. No tribe is born to govern and no tribe is born to be governed.
During those years there were also serious public allegations of ethnic discrimination within public institutions. At the same time, the economy deteriorated severely and political polarisation deepened. Zambia must never return to a politics in which surname, tribe or province becomes a test of patriotism or entitlement to the State.
There is another piece of history the international community should remember before casually describing current treason allegations as “concocted”. In 2017, Hakainde Hichilema himself was an opposition leader charged with treason. One of the prosecution allegations concerned the encounter between his convoy and President Edgar Lungu’s presidential motorcade on the Mongu – Limulunga Road. Hichilema spent months in detention before the treason proceedings were discontinued.
That experience should have taught us a permanent lesson. Demand evidence. Demand due process. Demand humane treatment. Demand independent courts, but do not determine guilt or fabrication before the evidence has been heard. That standard must protect Brian Mundubile, Makebi Zulu and every accused person today. They are presumed innocent, but presumption of innocence does not establish political persecution, nor does it establish that the State fabricated its case.
The elections have only just concluded, and the State has already publicly disclosed serious national security allegations arising from its investigations, including the recovery of weapons and ammunition. These are not trivial allegations that the United Nations can simply dismiss from outside the courtroom as “concocted”. The State has made its case clear so far, and it will have the opportunity before the courts to produce its evidence and prove the charges it has brought.
Equally, Brian Mundubile, Makebi Zulu and every other accused person will have the opportunity to challenge that evidence, present their defence and exercise all the protections guaranteed to them by law. That is precisely why the UN should not prejudge the case. Let the State prove its allegations in court, let the accused defend themselves, and let the courts determine the truth. Follow the evidence wherever it leads.
Zambia is not a failed state. We are a peaceful, stable, sovereign constitutional Republic. Our history records coups and attempted coups against the constitutional order. The Zambian State did not look away. Its institutions acted firmly, prosecutions followed and, in cases where the evidence established guilt, people were convicted. Zambia’s peace and stability have therefore never meant complacency in the face of threats to the State. We have preserved our constitutional order because our institutions have acted when that order has been threatened. Democracy does not require Zambia to abandon that responsibility today.
Political opposition is protected. Insurrection is not. Freedom of expression is protected. Political violence is not. Let investigators investigate. Let prosecutors produce their evidence. Let defence lawyers challenge it. Let independent courts decide. That is the rule of law
DO NOT BRING INSTABILITY TO ZAMBIA IN THE NAME OF DEFENDING DEMOCRACY.
Demand due process. Demand respect for human rights. Hold governments accountable. We should welcome principled international scrutiny, but do not prejudge active investigations or pronounce criminal charges fabricated before the evidence has been heard. Opposition status does not place anyone beyond the reach of the law. I am speaking from experience as a proper political detainee, without trial, during the PF rule.
The UN Charter is founded upon the sovereign equality of its Member States. Zambia did not surrender its sovereignty when it joined the United Nations. The UN should condemn abuses by governments and defend opposition politicians against genuine persecution. It should equally oppose terrorism, insurrection, ethnic hatred, religious persecution and political violence. Democratic states have both a right and a duty to defend their constitutional order through lawful institutions.
Human rights and national security can coexist. Democracy and law enforcement can coexist. Sovereignty and international cooperation can coexist. What cannot coexist with international credibility is double standards. This is why I understand President Trump’s challenge to parts of the international institutional system. International organisations earn respect through impartiality, professionalism and consistency.
Where is this same urgency in the parts of the world where States have actually descended into chronic war, terrorism and institutional collapse? The United Nations has been present for decades in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, yet armed groups continue to kill civilians, seize territory and displace communities. Sudan is living through one of the gravest humanitarian catastrophes in the world, with nearly 34 million people requiring humanitarian assistance.
Nigeria continues to suffer horrific violence by terrorist and extremist groups against religious communities, including Christians, while Muslims and others have also been victims. These are precisely the places where the international system should be concentrating enormous diplomatic, humanitarian and peacebuilding energy. Preventing States from collapsing, stopping terrorism, protecting civilians and helping societies recover lasting peace.
Zambia must not be lectured into weakening the very institutions that have kept our Republic peaceful and intact. Peace is not the absence of strength. Peace is protected by strength. A peaceful State does not wait until terrorists, militias, insurrectionists or armed political movements have plunged the country into catastrophe before enforcing its laws. Zambia’s institutions have acted firmly and decisively throughout our history to preserve the constitutional order, and that is one reason we remain a peaceful Republic today. We will not apologise for using the lawful force of the State to keep Zambia peaceful. We do not intend to become another international crisis before the world suddenly discovers that our stability mattered.
I have seen where hatred can ultimately lead. I have stood at Auschwitz. That experience will remain with me for the rest of my life. It is why I will fight tribal hatred. Zambia must defend democracy, human rights, the rule of law and national unity, and Zambia must defend Zambia.
One law. One standard. No double standards.
Saviour Chishimba
President
United Progressive People (UPP)
UPND Alliance Partner
