The BNFA, our clients, initially gave President Sata two months to sign the PCA arbitration agreement it had proposed, in order to allow the peaceful resolution of the Barotseland issue in accordance with international law. Over 8,000 Barotseland representatives have signed the PCA arbitration agreement to date.
This deadline passed on 28 May 2014, and Zambia has refused to sign the arbitration agreement. This is unfortunate, and it proves that Zambia knows itself to be in violation of international law with respect to Barotseland, but lacks the courage to have its violations of international law examined by a neutral international arbitration tribunal located in The Hague.
Zambia would almost certainly lose a neutral international arbitration, given Zambia’s many obvious violations of the Barotseland Agreement 1964 over the past five decades. It is a shame that Zambia lacks the courage to settle the Barotseland issue definitively, however, and to settle this decades-long question in a peaceful and enlightened manner.
We have counselled our clients to leave the possibility of PCA arbitration, while other means are put in place to ensure that Zambia’s many decades of abusing the rights of the people of Barotseland comes to an end. The BNFA has therefore left the door open for President Sata to sign the agreement in the future, as President Sata would do if he were capable of acting in good faith.
Meanwhile, hundreds of new Barotseland representatives have stepped forward to sign the PCA arbitration agreement, whose signatures may be found below, and also on the BNFA’s website: https://bnfa.info/.
