Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Special Report Enforcing the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe CHAPTER 2 ENFORCING THE RULE OF LAW: PARLIAMENT As one of the three pillars of State, Parliament comprises the elected representatives of the people. Its function is to make laws for society. Laws are the rules by which we agree to live together, so it is important that they be made by our own representatives, who are elected to speak on our behalf. Parliament, then, is the foundation of the rule of law. Over many centuries in other countries, the people’s representatives have fought to defend and extend the people’s rights, usually against arbitrary, autocratic, inherited and unaccountable powers of a monarch or emperor. These battles have shaped the function of contemporary law-making as a democratic process reflecting what the majority of the citizens – as opposed to executive rulers – want. The rule of law starts with a democratically-elected legislature. That Parliament must then pass laws in accordance with both the Constitution (which is our ‘supreme law’ overriding all others) and the rules of procedure in the House of Assembly. Parliamentarians must obey their own laws and rules as a first step in upholding the will of those who elected them in a rule-bound society. But Parliaments can – and regrettably often do – fall down on this job. They cave in to what the executive branch of the State wants, break their own rules of procedure, pass laws - against legal advice - that are unconstitutional. Formal roles in the structure of Parliament, especially those of the Speaker and the Leader of the House, can also be manipulated to political advantage. Finally, Members of Parliament (MPs) as individuals may break laws they themselves have passed - thus setting a very bad example to the rest of us. If we look at our own Constitution, its sequencing implies that Parliament is not in reality the starting-point of Zimbabwean governance. After Citizenship and the Declaration of Rights comes the Executive, followed by Parliament. Our Judiciary ranks even lower, after the Public Service but before the three uniformed services. (Perhaps the current state of our economy is at least partly explained by the placing of Finance right at the end, just before Miscellaneous Provisions!) Moreover, all of our statutes state: ‘Enacted by the President and the Parliament of Zimbabwe’ – in that order. If we are to assess how well our Parliament upholds the rule of law, we should ask some simple questions. Has Parliament passed legislation that contravenes our rights enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Have MPs listened to legal advice regarding proposed new laws? Have Parliament’s own institutions operated in the spirit of democracy and in accordance with their own rules of procedure? Do MPs individually act in accordance with the laws? Laws passed by Parliament in breach of human/constitutional rights When a party wins two-thirds of the seats in our Parliament, it has the capacity to change our Constitution. Zanu-PF was not initially, in 1980, elected with that large a majority. But between 1981 and 1985, with the consent of MPs belonging to other parties, it amended the Constitution five times. With two exceptions, none of these amendments affected the Declaration of Rights in 6