Human Rights Archive Zimbabwe

Seven activists, arrested on different dates, are facing charges of treason after they attended a training organised by the Center for Non-Violence Action and Strategies (CANVAS) in the Maldives.

The trial of seven activists, charged with treason for attending a training in the Maldives, has yet to begin due to the authorities’ lack of preparedness.

ZHRC speaks to human rights victims

Newly appointed Executive Secretary hopes to leave a mark

ZHRC’s ability to go ‘where the angels fear to tread’ impresses Speaker

This is the final report containing the findings of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC), pursuant to a monitoring mission that was undertaken on the 17th - 18th, the 21st – 25th of January and the 11th of February 2019 in Harare Metropolitan Province, Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Mashonaland West and Mashonaland East in the aftermath of disturbances that occurred from Monday 14 January 2019.

Investigative Report on Discrimination on the Basis of Political Affiliation, Kadoma (Mashonaland West) 2018

Political Violence

On Friday 5th July the Freedom of Information Bill was published in the Gazette; it is available on the Veritas website

This bulletin contains the exact text of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission’s Press Statement on public protests and police conduct.

The APCJ is a refereed journal with a panel of international editorial advisors and readers. All articles are anonymously peer reviewed by at least two referees.

Strategic Plan for Constitution Dissemination, Education and Awareness in Fourteen (14) Officially Recognised Languages.

This report gives a detailed analysis of the direct and structural violence against children. On structural violence it addresses the defects in the legal framework and the structures that are supposed to protect children and expose the loopholes and notoriety of the system.

This submission contains a compilation of the views of more than 400 health workers consulted by the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights about their views on the new Constitution.

This report covers the state of human rights in Zimbabwe in the year 2018. While it is impossible to capture and record every single incident that happened in the year, the report presents and analyses key events and incidences that shaped the human rights landscape, as well as compliance,accountability and impunity.

The alert highlights that failure by the government to honour court judgments in favour of victims of human rights violations by the police and the military, is actually a human rights violation.

This report narrates the level and extent of state agents' level of impunity in Zimbabwe informed by the legal cases that the Forum has been working on since its formation in 1998.

This study is based on the major premise that Zimbabwe has had only one major transition that is from colonial settler rule in 1980, although there have been some political accommodations such as the 1997 Unity Accord and the 2008 Global Political Agreement.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (Human Rights Forum) was established after the Food Riots in 1998 as human rights groups and NGOs in Harare swung into action following the many reports of human rights violations.

The Report reviews international standards on ‘timeliness’ as well as court judgments and procedures from a number of countries around the world. It formulates a number of important litigation and advocacy strategies for the benefit of lawyers working with torture survivors which are designed to help mount effective responses to both systemic delays and delays in individual torture cases.

In May 2003 REDRESS learned that an allegedly notorious Zimbabwean police torturer, Henry Dowa, was in Kosovo. Sources inside and outside of Zimbabwe confirmed that there were numerous serious allegations of torture linked to him, and further investigations revealed that Dowa was part of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) civilian police force (CIVPOL).

Zimbabwe has not acceded to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment nor the statute of the International Criminal Court. There are a number of other specific Commonwealth declarations and principles, which were applicable to Zimbabwe before it left the Commonwealth in 2003.

This analysis, which included Zimbabwe, showed that, on average, Zimbabweans were highly dissatisfied with the state of democracy in their country, but that the winners were more satisfied than either the losers or the non-partisan, but also that the non-partisan were slightly more dissatisfied than the losers. This analysis was based on the data from the 1999 Afrobarometer survey, but one can see from the 2004 survey that this conclusion would still hold.

This report finds that legal accountability and the rule of law in Zimbabwe have been seriously eroded under the ZANU-PF government through its interference in the criminal justice system. It shows that victims of human rights abuses—mainly MDC supporters—continue to be denied their right to justice and an effective remedy.

This report considers the human rights implications of the so-called fast track process of land redistribution in Zimbabwe, under which the government has revised the constitution and amended legislation in order to allow it to acquire commercial farms compulsorily and without compensation, and the land occupations that have accompanied it since early 2000.

Zimbabwe is in a humanitarian crisis that is the result of a political crisis. A cholera epidemic has—as of January 12, 2009—left over 39,000 people infected and at least 2,000 dead, with the disease spreading to neighboring countries. This marks both the collapse of Zimbabwe’s healthcare system and the calculated disregard for the welfare of Zimbabweans by the ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

Under humanitarian law and a series of international conventions, all gross human rights violations are argued to require legal remedy. However, in situations of epidemic violence legal remedies may require extension through a policy of reparations. There are conceptual confusions that often impair the proper formulation of a reparations policy. This paper examines these problems in the context of Zimbabwe.

The report emphasizes on Putting HUMAN RIGHTS AT THE TOP OF THE POLITICAL AGENDA and Amnesty International is also concerned about the deteriorating economic and social conditions in Zimbabwe. In particular, the organisation is concerned about the increased food insecurity, collapse of public health, and failing education system.

This report contains findings of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC/Commission), pursuant to an investigation undertaken by the ZHRC into a complaint lodged by three Teachers Unions namely, Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union (ARTUZ), Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and the Zimbabwe Rural Teachers Union (ZRTU) on behalf of Teachers and school children across the country.

This report contains findings of the ZHRC pursuant to investigations conducted into the complaints of villagers from Dewure Resettlement Scheme in Bikita East Constituency of Masvingo, Wards 7 and 8 of Mazowe Central Constituency, ward 2 and 17 of Muzarabani North and South Constituencies and wards 7, 8,9,10,11,12,13 and 31 of Buhera North Constituency who alleged that they were being discriminated against during food and agriculture input distributions on the grounds that their political views were different from those of the officials who were distributing.