312 Zim
HR
NGO
Forum
312 Zim
HR
NGO
Forum
Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe messenger of court fees and fees for the deputy
sheriff were reduced to enable litigants to access justice
Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe prison officers shifted from the tendency to punish
and not rehabilitate prisoners. Food supplements were
provided to prisoners on ARV treatment who prior to this had
been neglected.
The general context under which these results were achieved was characterised by
gross human rights violations, selective application of the law and impunity. Most
victims suffered in silence without justice and/or rehabilitation. At the inception of the
GTF312 programme in 2008, a GNU had been installed but regardless of this, violence,
human rights abuses and intimidation still persisted.
Our theory of change recognised that in such an environment the society required an
overhaul of its human rights knowledge and values so that the demand for human
rights fulfillment would derive from within, not from outside. Victims required awareness
of their rights and empowerment on how to claim them through provision of adequate
information and victim-friendly services for the promotion and protection of their rights.
We believed that state and non-state actors violating citizens’ rights would become
deterred from commiting violations if penalised for their actions. Evidence of violations
would prompt state accountability and responsiveness for the fulfillment of human
rights. Human rights victims could know about the consortium’s intervention services if
they were socially marketed through outreach activities, human rights defenders,
information dissemination through websites and press releases as well as referrals
within the consortium. Our experience was that professional delivery of intervention
services that are responsive to user-needs created demand for human rights and
governance and transparency from government; and that government would abide by
its human rights obligations under domestic and international human rights law if
consistently pressured and provided with accurate information of violations. We
realised that law enforcement agents and judicial officers are not averse to service
provision that attempts to promote, protect and fulfill citizens’ human rights regardless
of clearly deliberate attempts by some political parties to make them partisan. As a
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