Prominent Zimbabwean lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu is considering a challenge to a law that prohibits prisoners from engaging in sexual intercourse with their spouses.
During the “Family Week” in 2019, Mayor Kanyezi, the chief correctional officer of the Zimbabwe Prison Correctional Services (ZPCS), said that while visiting rules and regulations for inmates were relaxed (during that week), this did not include the provision of conjugal rights. Said Kanyezi at the time:
There are rights that are removed when someone has been convicted and sentenced in jail.
Soon after conviction, prisoners’ rights, rules and regulations are read to him or her, and rights such as having sex with your partner is not there.
Just getting convicted means you lose many of your rights that you were enjoying in the outside world.
We are saying this is a Family Week where you can visit and spend many hours with your incarcerated relatives but we are not saying those with spouses in jail can come and reignite their sexual relationships.
Advocate Mpofu argues that denying conjugal rights to inmates undermines vital family bonds, which in turn affects the effectiveness of the prison system in rehabilitating offenders.
In a post on X, he asserted that conjugal rights are fundamental human rights essential for maintaining intimate relationships and fostering rehabilitation.
Mpofu argued that the state has a responsibility to uphold these rights, particularly for the benefit of innocent parties. Wrote Mpofu:
Denying conjugal rights to spouses of incarcerated individuals raises concerns about the efficacy of our prison system.
How can rehabilitation occur when family bonds, essential to a person’s well-being, are disrupted?
Our stance is that prison should reform. How can it achieve that if it does not prioritize family life, itself the very core of human existence?
Further, why must the innocent spouse be punished by being denied conjugal activity whilst at the same time expected to wait faithfully for their incarcerated partner?
There is no doubt in my mind that conjugal rights are fundamental human rights, essential for maintaining intimate relationships and promoting rehabilitation.
That being the case, the state has a duty to uphold these rights, at least in the name of the innocent party.
More: Pindula News