3. Activities and achievements
3.1 Activities
During the period under review the consortium monitored the role of state agents and
non-state actors in human rights violations. The Consortium contributed to institutional,
legislative and constitutional reforms in Zimbabwe through various activities and
iniatives. Reviews of the draft Constitution prior to the referendum created an
understanding of the document and its implications on human rights promotion and
protection, governance and transparency. Enhanced capacity to monitor human rights
violations was developed for both personnel in the consortium and stakeholders that
collaborate in this endeavour. Public and stakeholder engagements were made on
issues such as the death penalty as a constitutional issue; the criminalisation of torture;
LGBTI rights; youth and politics; legislative processes and minority rights. Campaigns
carried out included the “End hate campaign” to secure public acceptance and
tolerance of sexual diversity and the LGBTI community; the Anti-Torture campaign to
encourage government to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture and the Anti-Death
campaign seeking to ban the death penalty. Public participation was facilitated through
various human rights events such as the International Day of Peace, International
Human Rights Day, International Day in Support of Victims of Torture; Africa Human
Rights Day and 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence. During these
commemorations marches were held, press statements were issued, solidarity
statements were made by CSOs and commitments were made for the realisation of
themes that marked the commemoration of the events. Numerous information,
education and communication materials were produced and disseminated to policy
makers, strategic stakeholders and members of the public through printed reports and
consortium member websites, radio programmes and as inserts in daily and weekend
newspapers. These facilitated a high voter turnout during the referendum process
where women with diverse political interests were unanimous on women’s
Constitutional priorities and at least 75% of their demands were incorporated into the
new Constitution. Training workshops, community dialogues, strategic and outreach
4