The Right To Life and Occupational Health and Safety in Zambia

The right to life is one of the most basic rights that persons generally enjoy. The protection of this right is recognised and provided for both in the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia and international instruments that the Country has assented to. Thus, a person may not be deprived of his/her life intentionally except for a capital offence the sentence of which is death. Many are times that the protection of the right to life is looked at in terms of homicide overlooking other activities that may deprive humans of their lives. At the centre of these other activities that may do so is labour. In the course of employment, workers may lose their lives either by accident or other factors as negligence or recklessness by the employees themselves or their employers. However, the latter is usually the case as employers have an obligation at both statute and common law to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of his/her employees.