Human Rights Archive Zimbabwe

The data collected reported six hundred and eighty eight human rights violations, which have been incorporated into the Shutdown Atrocities Report of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (of which ZPP is member).

On 20 November 2019, supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC-A) gathered at the party headquarters in Harare for the Hope of the Nation Address which was scheduled to be addressed by the party President Nelson Chamisa. The hostile response by the police who indiscriminately beat the crowd with baton sticks, with booted feet and fired tear gas in the busy Central Business District resulted in many citizens involved in their daily business being injured or bundled into police vehicles.

This document, and the factual assertions herein, is based on reports of the ensuing violence received from civic organisations and those published in the press.

This briefing paper describes the pre-election environment in Zimbabwe and concludes it is not possible to hold free and fair elections under the prevailing conditions.

The aim of this report is to provide succinct coverage of the election that brought the GPA to a close and also provide some pointers to the future of Zimbabwean politics.

The 2008 Harmonised Election in Zimbabwe was arguably the most historic of the post-independence elections, as for the first time in the last 28 years the ruling party lost its parliamentary majority and the President lost the first round of the Presidential election. This result represented the culmination of a decade of political and civic opposition to a former liberation party whose legitimacy has been greatly eroded by nearly three decades of intolerant rule.

On March 29, 2008, Zimbabweans will participate in presidential, parliamentary, senatorial, and local government elections synchronized for the first time, following changes to Zimbabwe’s constitution in September 2007. As the elections near, all indications are that once again the people of Zimbabwe will not be able to freely exercise their civil and political rights and vote for the candidates of their choice.

This report assesses the legislative and electoral reforms undertaken by the unity government and analyzes the quality of those reforms and their capacity to create an environment conducive to credible, free and fair elections. Human Rights Watch has found that the contending parties have focused on only one aspect of reforms—securing agreement on the necessary legal and administrative requirements for free and fair elections.

This report is based on research conducted by Human Rights Watch in Zimbabwe’s Harare, Bulawayo, the Midlands, Manicaland, Mashonaland East, Central and West provinces in November and December 2012, and in February 2013. The report illustrates how the partisanship of the security forces’ leadership has translated into abuses by these forces against the MDC and civil society organizations across the country and in political interference.

This report, based on investigations in Zimbabwe, describes the scale of the abuses and identifies those responsible—officials from ZANU-PF, often working through proxy forces of so-called war veterans and youth militia, backed by members of the armed forces and police. Local institutions have identified at least 2,000 beatings and cases of torture.

Success of the BVR process hinged on timeous finalization of requisite processes.

Lessons from Kenya on mass Biometric Voter Registration.

CSOS call for Comprehensive reforms to ensure Democratic Elections.

Contestants call for peaceful participation in Norton By-election.

New Amendments to the electoral Act falls short of expectations.

ZEC hold Crucial all stakeholder Conference on Voter Registration.

The Bulletin Stated that contesting for Elections is expensive in Zimbabwe making it essential that Political parties have funding for them to take part in the polls.

Progress and Gaps as Zimbabwe headed for elections in 2012.

Zimbabwe not ready for Elections says UN

In Zimbabwe it has been noted that threats and intimidation have been and are still to bring about certain electoral outcomes.

The seat fell vacant following the death on 5 October, 2015 of the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) incumbent for Nkulumane constituency Honorable ThamsanqaMahlangu. ZESN deployed 14 observers comprising static (polling station based observers), constituency and mobile observers to measure compliance with regards to the Constitution and electoral laws as well as to identify gaps in the electoral practice to enable informed advocacy interventions for electoral reforms.

The by-election was necessitated by the fact that ZANU-PF invoked section 129 (1) (k) of the Constitution which states that a Member of Parliament’s (MP) seat becomes vacant when the MP ceases to belong to the political party of which he or she was a member when elected to Parliament and the political party concerned, by written notice to the Speaker of Parliament, or the President of the Senate, as the case may be, informs parliament of the same.

The harmonised elections set for 31 July 2013 remain perhaps the most significant yet contested polls in the history of Zimbabwe. Not only has the timing of the actual poll been uncertain, but the polls are also approaching at a time when the curtains are coming down on the embattled Inclusive Government (IG) that was akin to a love-hate relationship amongst the three main political parties represented in Parliament.

The Forum documented violations relating to economic, social and cultural rights. The right to education continues to be violated by school authorities that turn children away over non-payment of school fees and levies.

The report presents areas of concern as Zimbabweans head for the polls in the first post-Mugabe election. It is a tightly contested election pitting a post-Tsvangirai opposition coalition and a post-Mugabe ruling party. Both the opposition and the ruling party are promising real change, equating the plebiscite to the 1980 elections that ushered in majority rule.

Predisposing the Scourge of Political Violence.Political violence in Zimbabwe has always been a cause for concern. It curses our society. Very little effort or headway has been made to address this historical problem.

The month of April also witnessed increasing tensions between the government and its employees with the government failing to respond to the concerns of workers in the public sector. This led to another strike by nurses, which compromised the right to health care. The March 2018 strike by doctors was followed by a nurse’s strike on 16th of April. Vice President Chiwenga responded by firing all striking nurses violating section 65 (2) (3) of the Constitution, which recognises the right of all employees to engage in collective bargaining with the exception of the security service.

In this report for 2008,there are certain trends and characteristics which have been attendant on the incidents reported to the Human rights Forum which rebut the denial of ZANU PF that in most instances the violence that was reported was between over zealous youths and villagers.