Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Special Report
Gender and Constitutional Issues
(d) the relationship between the limitation and its purpose, in particular whether it
imposes greater restrictions on the right or freedom concerned than are necessary
to achieve its purpose;
(e) whether there are any less restrictive means of achieving the purpose of the
limitation.
63. In addition to the limitations permitted by s 62, the rights and freedoms set out in Part II
may be further limited by a written law providing for measures to deal with situations
arising during a period of public emergency, but only to the extent permitted by the Second
Schedule.10
69. A court must not decide that a law infringes a right or freedom set out in Part II on the
ground that the law is not reasonable or justifiable in an open and democratic society based
on human dignity, equality and freedom, unless the court has given the Minister responsible
for that law a reasonable opportunity to make representations on the issue.
What the draft proposed to ‘give’ to women was superficially attractive, but in some respects actually
weakened existing protections. To many women, it appeared to repeat past male strategies of giving
symbolic rights that had little substance in practice. The Women’s Coalition therefore successfully urged
women to vote against these proposals in the referendum. It later drafted the Women’s Charter, which
was adopted by a specially-convened conference in October 2000.
10 The small print of the Second Schedule specified that certain rights were inviolable in public emergencies. These
included the rights to life, to be treated with humanity and human dignity, to a fair trial and to challenge the
lawfulness of arrest or detention, and not to be subjected to medical experiments, slavery, servitude or unfair
discrimination.
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Select target paragraph3
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