Amnesty International Calls Cancellation Of Six Passports Unlawful

Amnesty International has demanded that the Government reverse the cancellation of passports belonging to six Zambians, saying the decision breaches international human rights law. The organisation said those affected have been left in what it described as a state of de facto…

Amnesty International has demanded that the Government reverse the cancellation of passports belonging to six Zambians, saying the decision breaches international human rights law. The organisation said those affected have been left in what it described as a state of de facto statelessness.

Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Vongai Chikwanda said the cancellations amounted to the use of administrative powers to silence critics. She placed them within a broader pattern of repression the organisation has documented since the general election.

“The arbitrary cancellation of passports by Zambian authorities is a violation of international human rights law,” Ms Chikwanda said. “By weaponising citizenship documents to target dissidents, activists, or political opponents, authorities explicitly breach the right to freedom of movement enshrined in Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR.”

The six are former Zambian Ambassador to Ethiopia and former Permanent Representative to the African Union Emmanuel Mwamba, historian and academic Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa, former opposition Members of Parliament Binwell Mpundu and Emmanuel Jay Banda, former State House Special Assistant Peter Kaiser Zulu, widely known as Kaizer Zulu, and blogger Lillian Mutambo.

Their passports were cancelled through Gazette Notice No. 1421 of 2026, published in the Government Gazette of Friday, 11 September 2026. The instrument is dated 7 September and was issued from the headquarters of the Registrar General’s Office, National Registration, Passport and Citizenship Department in Lusaka. It states that the six documents have been cancelled or revoked “for security reasons in the interest of national security.”

That same formula is entered against every name in the schedule. The instrument offers no account of the conduct alleged against any individual, and does not identify the legal provision relied upon.

Ms Chikwanda said the consequences reached well beyond the ability to travel. The decision, she said, effectively stripped the six of their legal and social identity and undermined their dignity and basic civil protections.

That reading tracks the operative terms of the gazette. The cancelled passports are no longer valid for identification, travel or any official purpose, and any use of them may constitute an offence. The public, Government institutions, financial institutions, border control authorities, law enforcement agencies and all other relevant institutions have been advised not to accept, recognise or rely upon the documents.

Anyone holding one of the cancelled passports is required to surrender it immediately to the Department of National Registration, Passport and Citizenship, the Department of Immigration or the Zambia Police.

Amnesty also questioned the domestic legal footing of the decision. Zambia’s passports and citizenship legislation permits cancellation only on specified grounds, the organisation said, among them loss of citizenship, a passport obtained through fraud or misrepresentation, certain forms of passport fraud, specified convictions and death.

Political criticism or opposition to the Government is not in itself a stated ground for cancellation, Amnesty said. The notice makes no reference to political activity and rests the decision solely on security.

Ms Chikwanda set the cancellations against the period since the 13 August vote. “This is deeply concerning, particularly given the wider post-election crackdown on dissent, including arbitrary arrests and detention of members of the opposition and other government critics,” she said.

The organisation said it had documented a rapid deterioration in the human rights situation in the run-up to, during and after polling day, marked by arbitrary arrests and detention as well as attacks and intimidation targeting human rights defenders, activists, journalists and opposition party members. As electoral tensions intensified, those violations were followed by further arrests of opposition members. Amnesty pointed to the killing of former Cabinet Minister Mutotwe Kafwaya during a security operation as a further escalation of that crackdown.

“Amnesty International calls on the Zambian authorities to revoke these passport cancellations, restore these individuals’ passports and remedy any harm resulting from this unlawful decision,” Ms Chikwanda said.

Socialist Party president Dr Fred M’membe raised a parallel objection, saying the authorities had not disclosed what the national security grounds were.

No Government explanation of the security concerns has been placed in the public domain beyond the single line repeated against each name in the schedule. The notice concerns travel documents only and makes no reference to the citizenship of those listed. Neither does it indicate whether any of the six were given an opportunity to respond before the decision was taken.