14 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Pre-session working group – Zimbabwe 4.3 DETENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS INCLUDING PREGNANT WOMEN AND MOTHERS WITH SMALL CHILDREN (ARTICLE 7(C) AND 12) Amnesty International has documented several cases where, the lives or health of women human rights defenders and their young children have been put at risk while in police custody.15 A number of women human rights defenders from WOZA sometimes take their babies with them to marches. The women told Amnesty International that most of them have no one else to leave the babies with. In most instances the babies are still breastfeeding and cannot be separated from their mothers for prolonged periods. Amnesty International notes that these women tend to be single mothers living on their own. Although most women human rights defenders who are arrested with babies are released earlier than women without children, and do not spend nights in police cells, some have not been so fortunate. Amnesty International has documented cases where the police subjected the mothers and babies to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and at times even appeared to justify such treatment. In one incident in November 2006, six mothers with babies were arrested and detained overnight at various police stations in Bulawayo after having spent the whole day at Bulawayo Central police station in the rain, in a fenced area in an open-air courtyard. When two WOZA leaders who were also in detention objected to the ill-treatment of the women, particularly the mothers with babies, police reportedly told them that “they deserved the treatment”. Later that evening the police transferred the detainees to several police stations in Bulawayo. The mothers with babies were not released until the following day. Amnesty International interviewed a 26-year-old WOZA member, who was one of the six mothers with babies arrested. At the time, her baby was nine months old. Police took away her bag with nappies and would not allow her to change the baby’s soiled nappy. She told Amnesty International that the women pleaded repeatedly with the police but were told that they “should have stayed at home if they wanted better treatment.” In the evening, the woman was transferred together with 13 other protesters, including another woman with a small baby, to Queens Park police station. She was only allowed to change her baby’s nappy around midnight after lawyers finally managed to obtain access. As a result the baby developed an infection which required medical care.16 In December 2005, an activist with the Women and AIDS Support Network, was arrested by police for attempting to participate in a peaceful march on Harare’s First Street, as part of a campaign in support of women’s access to anti-retroviral therapy. The march had been sanctioned by the police. Despite the fact that she was six months pregnant, she was detained overnight at Harare Central police station in a very cold cell with no blankets. 15 Zimbabwe: Between a rock and a hard place - women human rights defenders at risk, Index AFR 46/017/2007, 25 July 2007 16 Ibid. Amnesty International June 2011 Index: AFR 46/014/2011