Bill Watch 56/2019 International Treaties Bill 30 October 2019 Constitution does not appear to give the President “prerogative powers” in relation to treaties or anything else, so where does he get them? Be that as it may, all treaties have to be approved by Parliament so they must be published at least to the extent of being distributed to parliamentarians, whether or not they are gazetted later. Domestication of treaties Under clause 7 of the Bill, when a treaty is published in the Gazette after being approved by Parliament, PAAC must publish a notice indicating whether the treaty is self-executing, i.e. that it is enforceable in Zimbabwe without the need for legislation, or whether it needs to be domesticated, i.e. incorporated into the law of Zimbabwe by legislation. If the latter, the Ministry responsible for negotiating the treaty will have to send the treaty to the Attorney-General’s Office for the necessary legislation to be prepared [clause 7(6)]. This is a welcome provision because it will help to ensure that the government gives effect to treaties it has signed. All too often in the past the government has ratified treaties and then, as with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women [CEDAW], failed to incorporate their provisions into our law. Unfortunately however the Bill does not lay down time-limits for treaties to be domesticated. It would be better if Parliament were given power to specify timelimits for the domestication of particular treaties, and were able to hold the Government to them. Treaties lists Under clause 8 of the Bill PAAC will be responsible for maintaining treaties lists, and will be able to publish the lists in the Gazette. Conclusion This is a welcome Bill which, provided it is complied with, should bring clarity and order to the process of negotiating and ratifying international treaties. We have to add those words “provided it is complied with” because, as the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has discovered, government Ministries have not been punctilious in complying with existing constitutional provisions which require them to bring treaties to Parliament for approval. But let’s be hopeful: with new legislation the government may turn over a new leaf ‒ at least in regard to treaties. Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied. If you want to contact Veritas, have any questions or wish to subscribe or unsubscribe please email veritas@mango.zw If you are looking for legislation please look for it on www.veritaszim.net Follow us on (+263 71 893 3633) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.