Source: Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
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Executive summary
The Zimbabwe human rights situation remains unstable, characterised by an escalation of organised violence and torture in a delicate social, political and economic environment. The month of July witnessed a spike in rights violations emanating mainly from police brutality as a result of demonstrations and protests that engulfed cities and towns. Since January 2016, the country has witnessed close to 40 civilian led protests. These protests have questioned the social and economic governance of the country. There has been growing citizen consensus for socioeconomic and political reforms and these calls for reforms have been met with State heavy handedness and the violation of people’s rights.
In a bid to silence dissenting voices, police used brute force to quell the protests resulting in several citizens being arbitrarily arrested and injured. The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights recorded 600 such arrests during the period. Among the victims were social and political activists; human rights defenders; journalists and citizens who were caught up in the ensuing battles between the police and the protestors. Some of the protestors were denied access to justice spending as much as 82 days in remand prison as in the case of one Linda Masarira. Journalists were either assaulted arrested and detained while conducting their lawful and constitutionally protected responsibility of reporting.
Those that were arrested were subjected to severe torture, degrading and inhuman treatment. During the period a total of 336 cases of torture were recorded. The gory images of Ester Mutsiri and Gladys Musingo, with severely lacerated backsides taken on 19 September at the Mbare Magistrate Court are enough evidence of the heinous crime by law enforcement agencies. In addition to the spike in cases of torture, a disturbing trend also emerged during the period where state agents abducted and tortured identified protestors during the night. This is a crime that last had a high incident rate in 2008.
Fundamental rights and freedoms of expression, association, assembly and the freedom to demonstrate and petition were severely curtailed during the period. In July, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) leadership was arrested and publicly disparaged for speaking negatively against the political economy and the actions of some government ministers. In a Communiqué, allegedly authored by War Veterans on the 16th of July 2016, they called for President Mugabe to step down from national leadership.
So determined was the government to stifle fundamental rights that on 16 September, General Notice 245/2016 was gazetted banning demonstrations and all public processions in Harare Central from 16 September to 15 October 2016. While on 20 September the government invoked Statutory Instrument 184 of 1987 banning the possession manufacture sale, use and possession of replicas of the national flag
contrary to Sec 134 (b) of the Constitution that prohibits subsidiary legislation from limiting or infringing upon rights sets out in the declaration of rights. Economic, social and cultural rights (ECOSOC) were violated partly through the government’s lack of commitment in investing in the realization of these rights. Rights such as the right to health, safe and clean water, education and freedom from arbitrary eviction continued to be violated during the period. The government demonstrated limited commitment to promote and protect ECOSOC rights. It is disturbing that the government has not shown any signs of addressing the worsening national crisis and the ruling elites seem to be pre-occupied with power contestations at the expense of the economy which is in a dire state making it very difficult for citizens to access their constitutionally guaranteed rights. Instead of coming up with solutions to the deteriorating socio- economic environment, the government resorted to arbitrary arrests, torture and abduction of citizens protesting against the continued economic decline.
While the government has persistently denied partisan distribution of food, an investigation by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) revealed evidence of partisan distribution of food by District Administrators, village heads, headmen and village secretaries in Bikita East, Mazowe Central, Muzarabani North and South and Buhera North. CSOs such as Heal Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Peace Project continued to document cases of partisan food distribution across the country.
This continued violation of rights has been worsened by the government’s lack of commitment to amend old laws with the Constitution; Government’s failure to realign laws with the Constitution provides the state with a justification to continue violating rights at will.
In this report the following trends and characteristics were noted on the incidents reported to the Forum and its member and partner organisations:
- The Zimbabwe Republic police were the main perpetrators of organised violence and torture;
- The violence attributed to State agents (the police, army and members of the Central Intelligence Organisation) demonstrated evidence of systematic abductions and torture;
- There is no, or very little evidence, of any attempt by State to proactively deal with the violence; and
- There is very little commitment by the government to address social and
economic rights violations.
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Source: Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum