Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Special Report Gender and Constitutional Issues (4) Any law that discriminates against women on the basis of gender or marital status is invalid and legislation must be passed to eliminate customs and practices that discriminate against women, particularly practices such as: (a) sexual abuse, harassment and violence; (b) discrimination in work, business and public affairs; and (c) deprivation of property, including property obtained by inheritance. Section 5 provides for ‘affirmative action to protect or advance people or classes of people who have been disadvantaged by unfair discrimination in the past’. It does not specify any examples of such classes or people. Section 17 deals with the social institutions of marriage and the family, recognising the latter as ‘a natural and fundamental unit of society … entitled to protection by society and the State’. It protects the rights of all persons over 18 years to enter into marriages in which partners have equal rights, but does not explicitly affirm freedom of choice of partner although it does protect choice of marriage law (general or customary law). Underage marriages (between 16 and 18 years) would require parental (or guardian) consent. Under section 34, the right to citizenship is affirmed without discrimination, together with the right to acquire Zimbabwean citizenship through marriage to a partner of either sex. Finally, in Chapter 10 Part 5 the NCA proposed to establish a statutory Gender and Sexual Equality Commission (GSEC) chaired by a woman (qualified to be a) judge selected by the Judicial Services Commission. Two of its five members would be ‘elected by civic organisations representing women’s rights’. GSEC, with a research capacity, would act as an investigatory and advisory watchdog for discriminatory breaches of gender and sexual equality. Its major brief would be undertake any functions necessary ‘to promote gender equality and to prevent gender discrimination’. It remains to be seen whether the NCA’s constitutional proposals will prove acceptable to Zimbabwean women. 26