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The legitimisation of contemporary forms of slavery - The case of farm workers in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights (ZLHR)
November 02, 2005

http://www.zlhr.org.zw/media/releases/nov_2_05.htm

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude: slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

‘Slavery was the first human rights issue to arouse wide international concern. Yet, in the face of universal condemnation, slavery-like practices remain a grave and persistent problem in the closing years of the twentieth century. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) joins like-minded Zimbabweans in condemning, in the strongest of terms, the treatment and conditions which Zimbabwean farm workers have had to and continue to endure since colonial times. The resistance of some farmers to increasing the wages of farm workers from a paltry ZWD 192 000 to ZWD 400 000 is extremely regrettable These figures are well below the poverty datum line, and fall far short of even the minimum gazetted wages applicable to domestic workers, which are currently pegged at ZWD 850 000 (check). It must be noted that if the State and farmers alike (who employ the workers) are content with these figure the Millennium Development Goals, among them the eradication of poverty, will remain aspirational and non-attainable.

The word "slavery" today covers a variety of human rights violations. In addition to traditional slavery and the slave trade, these abuses include the sale of children, child prostitution, child pornography, the exploitation of child labour, the sexual mutilation of female children, the use of children in armed conflicts, debt bondage, the traffic in persons and in the sale of human organs, the exploitation of prostitution, and certain practices under apartheid and colonial regimes. It is the latter two variables of slavery that ZLHR feels are being legitimised in Zimbabwe through the recent announcements in terms of the living, remuneration and working conditions of farm workers. These essentially apartheid and colonialist practices are abhorrent and ought to be condemned in the strongest of terms by all right-minded and human rights conscious spheres of society.

Migrant farm workers, in particular, bear the heaviest brunt of all this inhuman and degrading treatment and torture. In addition to the hardships meted out upon them through denial of citizenship, general marginalisation and increased exposure to abuses of their economic, social and cultural rights, the added burden of lack of a proper income denies them the enjoyment of minimum standards conducive to a decent quality of life, protection of the family unit and the right to their development.

In the circumstances ZLHR calls upon the Government of Zimbabwe, especially the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, as well as the farmers who employ the workers to be cognisant of the harsh and ever-deteriorating economic environment present and the need for the workers to survive. In particular ZLHR reminds the Government of Zimbabwe of its obligations which it has willingly and consciously undertaken under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the ILO Convention, African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and the Constitution of Zimbabwe to ensure and fulfil the rights therein inter alia:

• Protection from inhuman and degrading treatment
• Protection from torture
• The right to the highest attainable standard of living
• Protection of the family as a unit
• Eradication of poverty
• Economic empowerment

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