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Zimbabwe: Confiscation of documents carried by human rights lawyer Dzimbabwe Chimbga

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports that documents carried by human rights lawyer Dzimbabwe Chimbga were confiscated by security agents at Harare International Airport on 2 May 2008. Dzimbabwe Chimbga works with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), a non-governmental organisation committed to upholding respect for the rule of law and the unimpeded administration of justice, free and fair elections, the free flow of information and the protection of constitutional rights and freedoms in Zimbabwe.  Read More

Zimbabwe: Raid on the offices of the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (ZESN) and harassment of its staff members

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports of a raid on the offices of the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network (ZESN) and of the home of Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, Director of the ZESN, on 25 April 2008. The ZESN is a group of thirty-eight non-governmental organisations which have come together to promote democratic processes in Zimbabwe.  Read More

Human rights defenders in Zimbabwe have been systematically targeted and subjected to arbitrary detention, arrest, and torture. Legislation introduced by the government severely curtails freedom of expression, assembly, movement and association and has led the UN Special Representative for Human Rights to state that indications are that “the human rights community as a whole, and defenders individually, are at a critical level of risk”.

According to the 2006 Report of the UN Special Representative for human rights defenders, the human rights defenders community in Zimbabwe is well organised, active and broad-based in terms of issues and actors involved. It includes NGOs, faith-based groups, human rights lawyers, student activists, social movements, community-level activists, trade unionists and members of the political opposition. Womens’ rights defenders are prominent. The government has introduced increasingly repressive legislation which has been used against human rights defenders, including:

  • the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, used by the government effectively to silence journalists and close down media-outlets seen as critical of its policies;
  • the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which has severely limited the right to freedom of assembly for human rights defenders and has restricted their possibilities to engage in and organise peaceful protests. Hundreds of human rights defenders, including independent media-workers and trade unionists, have been arbitrarily arrested or detained under this legislation. In many such cases the charges are subsequently dropped and those arrested released without charge; and
  • the Private Voluntary Organisations Act, revived by the government in 2002 and allegedly used to intimidate and harass NGOs, including human rights organisations.

In the majority of cases, the Zimbabwean authorities are the alleged perpetrators of violations against human rights defenders, including repeated stigmatisation by the government and state surveillance. Human rights defenders detained under the POSA have reportedly been subjected to ill-treatment, harassment and intimidation by the police while in custody including physical assaults and denial of access to lawyers, food and medical care, while there has been excessive use of force by police during peaceful demonstrations by human rights defenders.

[Sources: UN Add 5 Report: paras 1800-1824; Amnesty 2006 Report; Observatoire Report 2006; HRW World Report 2007]

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