1. International Human Rights Obligations on the Government of Zimbabwe

Every person is entitled to their Human Rights regardless of who they are, where they are or where they come from. Human Rights are inherent and intrinsic to humanity. Human Rights are concerned with the personal dignity of a person and are often seen as the common human value of the world and are mainly defined in law in a country’s legislation, in particular in her constitution. However, irrespective of a country’s constitution, human rights are inalienable and are defined according to international law, treaties and conventions. This also applies to Zimbabwe.

Following the end of World War II, the United Nations (UN), "determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind", created regulations on governments to prevent human rights violations. The aim was to "establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained".

This Human Rights Monthly will look at ways of utilizing the UN system and will explain how one may use this system if (s)he can’t get redress in her own country with all national remedies having been exhausted. This may be because the judicial process of a country has been unable to protect a person's human rights, or because (s)he has been denied access to the national remedies or because there are no national remedies in the country in question.

The human rights instruments in the UN are all based on the United Nation’s Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), both adopted in 1948 at the creation of the UN. Every country is by joining the UN, signing up to the Charter and the UDHR. To monitor human rights implementation in all the member states the UN has set up the UN Commission on Human Rights (The Commission), based in Geneva, Switzerland, which consists of 53 of UN’s member states. Zimbabwe joined the United Nations at independence in 1980 and is currently a member of the Commission.

In addition to the general commitments to human rights that each member state of the UN has, there are 6 treaties that countries can choose to ratify. There are 4 conventions: the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention Against Torture and the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and 2 covenants: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Each of these six treaties has a committee (often called a treaty body) to look at the compliance of the states that have ratified the treaty in question. Only countries that have ratified each treaty have obligations under these treaty bodies. Zimbabwe has ratified the above treaties with the exception of the Convention Against Torture.

The different treaties are in principle legally binding on the country but there are no enforcement mechanisms on countries that do not comply with treaty body recommendations. Nevertheless the work of the Commission is as effective as that of the treaty bodies. This is mainly due to the Commission’s special mechanisms which are in their general approach careful not to appear overly critical, but they are nevertheless in the valuable position of being able to expose human rights violations in every country to an international audience.

The Commission has 24 mechanisms that deal with human rights at its disposal:

The Commission’s mechanisms work is mainly in five areas.

1. They undertake general studies to define the human rights violations that fall under their mandate, analyse their occurrence and causes and comment on institutional aspects of national legislation and international standards. From this they make general recommendation on how to prevent human rights violations in their field and suggest possible remedies.
2. Of the 24 mechanisms mentioned above, 17 can receive complaints from individuals or NGOs. This is the main possibility for an individual or an NGO to get human rights violations in Zimbabwe seen by the international community.
3. They communicate with governments to find facts in a case and to make recommendations to the governments. This means that if the mechanism in question finds that an allegation of a human rights violation is credible and within their mandate, they will transmit it the Government of Zimbabwe, in order to get a response and an explanation.
4. They issue an annual report for the session of the Commission meeting (March / April every year). Most governments, including that of Zimbabwe, try to avoid being mentioned in the annual reports of the mechanisms.
5. The different mechanisms conduct on-site visits to countries that they find particularly worrying to get a first hand overview of the situation in a country. Country visits are usually followed by a report to the Commission with recommendations to the government of the country visited. It is a precondition for a visit that the government invites the mechanism. This is a condition that often makes it impossible for mechanisms to visit some countries. A mechanism can also contact a government and ask for an invitation. However if the government ignores them there is nothing they can do. As at May 2002 there were 38 countries that had issued standing invitations for any mechanism to visit their country at anytime. All of these countries are in Europe and the Americas. Zimbabwe has never been visited by any of the Commission’s mechanisms.

2 Human Rights Violations

1. Political

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has continued to receive reports of political violence from Buhera. The torture of MDC and suspected MDC supporters has led to the alleged murder of Cosamu Mudzimuirema, an MDC committee member who reportedly died as a result of torture by riot police.

2. Ordinary

The five murders included the shooting of a cross-border trader by soldiers at Machipanda Border Post. The two rapes recorded included that of a child raped by a man who followed her to the preschool toilet where he raped her once and a 26-year-old women who was gang raped by three brothers.

The Human Rights Monthly, carries a brief narrative on the activities of a member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum in each issue. This is intended to assist our readers to understand the activities of the coalition and furthermore about the services offered by each NGO. This month we feature Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is an association of lawyers and law students in Zimbabwe with a general interest in the protection and promotion of human rights in the country and the region. Although it is membership-based it has within the last year re-organised to create a full-time secretariat in an attempt to contribute more towards the development and protection of human rights. The association was formed in February 1996 by a group of senior human rights lawyers and continues to benefit from the wide range of experienced members from which it can call for assistance.

The aims and the objectives of the association are set out in the constitution and these are to:

• strive to protect, promote, deepen and broaden the human rights provisions in the Constitution of Zimbabwe
• strive for the implementation and protection in Zimbabwe of international human rights conventions;
• strive for the of the Southern African Human Rights Charter and establishment of a Southern African Court of Human Rights
• endeavour to find common ground with and to work alongside other Zimbabwean groups, organizations, activists and persons who share a broadly similar concern and interest in human rights
• liaise and work with other human rights groups wherever situated, particularly in Southern Africa and especially those linked to the legal profession

ZLHR is engaged in numerous projects from public education, (this has included public workshops on human rights issues and lectures on human rights for school pupils), public marches and demonstrations, litigation on human rights/public interest cases in areas of concern to the membership and the association. ZLHR was this year especially involved in litigation around the area of the denial of citizenship and the related right to vote to numerous Zimbabweans who had renounced all claims to foreign citizenship prior to the amendment to the Zimbabwe Citizenship Act. While applicants sponsored by the association were successful in a number of cases and were able to receive their passports, the association was not able to persuade the Passport Office to correct the abuses that were evident in the denial of travel documents to persons whose only citizenship is Zimbabwean.

Twice every year the association has published, and continues to publish, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Bulletin in which a base line report is provided covering all human rights violations during the period. Articles on human rights law and violations of human rights are also published in the Bulletin.

ZLHR is a member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum through which it participates in the prosecution of claims against perpetrators of political violence and torture as well as documenting all reported torture and political violence reports.