Human Rights Archive Zimbabwe

The pamphlet provides a summary of the Domestic Violence Act [Chapter 5:16] and explanatory notes on its application for the benefit of children, their caregivers and partners in the child rights sector.The Act was enacted on 26 February 2007 and became operational on 25 October 2007.

This report is based on the results of this study, which was done through the administration of a questionnaire prepared by RAU with a special focus on rape as a component of sexual violence. The study revealed interesting findings about how people view rape including that,Most people had a good understanding of what rape is and they based it on cultural implications.

This second National Gender Policy replaces the first National Gender Policy of 2004. The first National Gender Policy gave way to a range of initiatives meant to address gender inequalities. The ethos of Growth with Equity underpinned the 2004 NGP which was implemented under four thematic areas namely – (i) Women in Politics and Decision Making; (ii) Women and the Economy; (iii) Education and Training of Women; and (iv) Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women.

This paper advocates that election observation should take note of the issue of gender equality in electoral processes. Women’s full and equal participation and the integration of gender perspectives into all levels of the electoral processes enhance democratic practices in elections and for this reason, election observer missions should be prepared to render an election not free and fair on the basis of significant transgressions of the electoral rights of women.

What Zimbabwean Women Demand in the new Constitution

The Research & Advocacy Unit (RAU) undertook an analysis of the gender equality provisions under Zimbabwe’s new Constitution and compared these provisions to those constituted by select countries in the region.This document sets forth the analysis by providing a comparison between the gender equity provisions of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and those of Botswana, and Kenya, and South Africa.

This Bill seeks to establish a Gender Commission as provided for in section 245 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which creates an independent institution called the Zimbabwe Gender Commission. It also seeks to fulfil international and regional instruments that Zimbabwe is a party to, namely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and platform for Action

Sexual violence is the most pervasive form of violence in many of the conflict-ridden countries in Africa and continues to remain so, through various post-conflict stages even after the conflict has ended. Violence, particularly of a sexual nature and against women, that was characteristic of a prolonged conflict, comes to be accepted as the norm and part of the culture more so than it was prior to the conflict.

This is the second report on child marriage in Goromonzi District, following on a preliminary report of a study carried out in 2014 (RAU.2014), and series of legal reports prior to this (Dube.2012; RAU. 2011(a); RAU. 2011(b)). These reports are a contribution to the rapidly growing debate in Zimbabwe and the international world on the undesirability of early marriage for girls.

This paper is founded on two intertwined arguments. The first is that many national healing processes fail to consider the needs of the victims of violent conflict, especially women (partly because transitional justice processes are often driven by elites who proscribe and institutionalize them). The second is that, in identifying and addressing women’s needs in the national healing agenda, Zimbabwe should aim to avoid the traps of transitional justice initiatives that have focused on the human-rights violations alone.

Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

This paper explores how attempts to confront abusive pasts have deliberated gender in the promotion of reconciliation. In particular it will examine the nexus between gender justice and reconciliation in order to assess and considers ways to re-calibrate engagement with ongoing reconciliation processes.

This report has been issued to coincide with the 16 days on gender activism, and concerns the organized violence and torture experienced by Zimbabwean women during the crisis that has engulfed Zimbabwe since 2000. The women described in this report have all fled Zimbabwe into exile in South Africa, and most are currently seeking political asylum.

The report on a symposium entitled Accountability for conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence: Successes, challenges, narratives, and omissions which took place at the University of Pretoria from 15–17 March 2017.

This Report focused on the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of Women has been prepared and submitted to the CEDAW Committee by Beyond Beijing Committee (BBC) as an Alternative Report to the 4th and 5th combined periodic report submitted by the Government of Nepal. The purpose of the report is to maintain the government accountability both inside the country and at the United Nations.

Zimbabwean law provides for relatively equal property and inheritance rights for men and women. However, many of the women Human Rights Watch interviewed struggled to claim those rights for reasons unique to their status as widows. In Zimbabwe’s recent history, men traditionally owned all family property, and when women were widowed, they were often “inherited” as wives by male relatives of their deceased spouse.

This report, examining the violent and turbulent years between 2000 and 2006, shows that Zimbabwe has been no exception in this regard.

The present study examined social capital in women using the data from the last three rounds of the Afrobarometer surveys on Zimbabwe. Social capital in women is associated with Freedoms, Political participation,; Agency, Support for Democracy, and Political trust.

Rights of women to their own sexuality and fecundity remain deeply problematic in many societies. Whether rights over personal sexuality and reproduction are classified as civil or social, they are still the subject of bitter conflict for women worldwide.

The project is drawn against one of the Government of Zimbabwe’s key interventions in improving utilisation of comprehensive quality services for protection, care and support for GBV survivors in accordance with the National Gender-Based Violence Strategy. The project sought to respond and strengthen community gender-based violence service delivery and holistic support targeting adolescent girls and young women in line with the Multi-Sectoral Protocol on the Management of Sexual Abuse in Zimbabwe and the Constitution

The typical woman human rights defender (woman HRD) that this publication focuses on is one who asserts her rights as a human being first, and then as a woman, knowing full well that she bears the brunt of a breakdown of the human rights fulfilment matrix directly or indirectly.

This was a retrospective cohort study conducted at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, South Kivu Province. Using a non-systematic convenience sample, interviews were conducted on sexual violence survivors as they presented to Panzi Hospital requesting services from the Victims of Sexual Violence Program.