A Guide to Understanding A Guide to Understanding the the NATIONAL NATIONAL PEACE & RECONCILIATION PEACE & RECONCILIATION COMMISSION COMMISSION IN ZIMBABWE IN ZIMBABWE What is the duration of the NPRC? Acknowledgments 5.0 T The National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG) his chapter addresses two important issues relating to time. The acknowledges given by various stakeholders during duration of the support NPRC and the time under which the NPRC will the development of this guide. exercise its mandate. Special thanksnot gobe to confused. the secretariat of the NTJWG, which is the These two should Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. 5.1This Duration the NPRC guideofwould not mandate have been successful without the generous support of our funding partners. The Constitution specifies in section 251 that the duration of the NPRC shall be forand a period of ten in years the date.to the For feedback information this after guide, weeffective are grateful There has been some debate regarding what this provision means. stakeholders who read through the draft guide and gave valuable input. Some people argue that the effective date should be understood in a narrow sense to mean the day immediately after the date we owe it to the thousands of victims who have requested for onFinally, which former President Robert Mugabe signed the Constitution into law on 22 May, 2013. this simplified guide. It is their enduring hope for healing which keeps us on our feet. However, others have argued that the use of the phrase ‘after the effective date’ means that the NPRC can start to work any day after 22 May, 2013, but only after it has been fully made capable of functioning through an Act of Parliament and the Commissioners have been appointed and are ready to begin work. 5.2 Period to be investigated The Constitution does not specify the time period to be covered by the NPRC. In other countries, the law mentions the specific time period which is called the cut-off date to be covered by such a Commission. For example, in Mauritius the Commission investigated violations from 1638-2008 i.e. 370 years, South Africa 1960-1994 and Kenya 1963-2008. These dates indicate special periods in a country’s political history. This kind of specific time regulations has advantages as well as disadvantages. The table below highlights some of the advantages and disadvantages of having fixed dates for carrying out investigations. 26 4