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Zimbabwe Briefing Issue 48
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
(SA Regional Office)
October 19, 2011
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Forum urges reflective thinking on Zim
The multifaceted
Zimbabwe crisis took centre-stage yet again at the just-ended Southern
Africa Social Forum, held in Lusaka, Zambia from 13 to 15 October.
Participants in the Governance and Human Rights cluster, which discussed
how transition could be managed in Zimbabwe emphasized that the
country was not yet ready for another election but that it needed
to go through some deep soul searching which could allow it to move
forward given past experiences.
In particular,
there was a call for the review and analysis of the discourse on
political and electoral violence in post independent Zimbabwe. This,
it was argued, could help the country confront in an honest and
sincere way, human rights abuses such as the Gukurahundi massacres
in Matebeleland in the early 1980s and more recently post-2000.
However, if
this pursuit is going to take place within the framework of the
Global Political Agreement
(GPA), now three years old, it was suggested that an objective critique
of the agreement be made, citing all the pros and cons. The GPA
is seen as providing the logical conclusion to the current inclusive
government setup through a free and fair election that will result
in the democratic transfer of power to the eventual winner. Talk
is rife that Zimbabwe will go to the polls in 2012.
However, the
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition together with several other pro-democracy
forces has unequivocally stated that 2012 must be a year of credible
electoral reforms and not an election. A statement recently released
by the Coalition reads: "Indeed the year 2012 must not be
for elections but a year for fundamental electoral reforms."
It continues:
"[a]ccording to the Advocacy
Charter, Zimbabwe has not ratified all the outstanding human
rights treaties and their Optional Protocols such as the United
Nations Convention against torture, cruel or inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CAT), the international convection for
the protection of all persons against Enforced Disappearances. The
charter also stipulates that the unity government has also not ratified
the optional protocols to Convention on the Elimination of all forms
of Discrimination against Women, International Covenant on civil
political rights, international covenant on Economic Social and
Cultural Rights and the convention rights of the child."
Zimbabwe has
also recently rejected several key recommendations made at a United
Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Switzerland this
month.
The burden of
such results by the government of Zimbabwe, the Lusaka meeting observed,
falls on the shoulders of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) which,
as recommended by participants, continuously need to engage various
governance and rights bodies such as the UN, Africa Union (AU) and
the Southern African Development Community (SADC) who are key stakeholders
in pursuits to find a lasting solution to the crises besetting Zimbabwe,
especially those of a political nature.
Other key recommendations
from the meeting included; the need to strengthen solidarity ties
between the CSOs in the SADC region (experience sharing and exchange,
capacity building in advocacy and lobbying); the need to continuously
engage and draw other key demands when previous ones have been attained;
the need to consider alternative but effective approaches to mechanisms
of dealing with a post-GNU state (answering the question of immunity
to perpetrators of human rights abuses, prosecution and the setting
up truth and reconciliation commissions) and the urgent need for
Zimbabwean CSOs to properly package key messages to the region and
the rest of the world.
The Zambian
participants attending this discussion shared recent experiences
which have seen the copper-rich country hold not just a successful
election but one that guaranteed a democratic transfer of power.
Several key factors were attributed to this result - the professionalism
of the electoral commission, the working of Zambian CSOs with the
grassroots and high turnout by new, younger voters.
"The Southern
Africa Social Forum is a prelude to the African Social Forum (ASF)
and World Social Forum (WSF) that take place annually. The first
Southern African Social Forum was successfully held in 2003 Zambia,
the 2nd edition was hosted by Zimbabwe, with the 3rd and 4th edition
held in Malawi and Swaziland in 2006 and 2008 respectively. The
most recent one was 5th edition hosted by Lesotho successfully.
"The Social
Forum is not an organization, not a united front platform, but " . . . an
open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of
ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and
inter-linking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil
society that are opposed to neo-liberalism and to domination of
the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed
to building a society centred on the human person."
Participants
at this year's social forum came from Angola, Botswana, Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia,
Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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