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Agenda item 12 (d): The situation of Human Rights Defenders in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
November 28, 2005

We thank Madam Chair for affording Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights this opportunity to highlight the deteriorating situation of hrds in Zimbabwe.

The Commission's attention has already been drawn to the existence of repressive legislation, which continues to be selectively applied against perceived or real opposition political activists, as well as other hrds within civil society. This legislation includes the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Public Order and Security Act, and the Miscellaneous Offences Act. Constitutional rights activists, trade union leaders, student leaders, women's activists and church leaders are routinely harassed, arrested, beaten, unlawfully held in conditions which amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, at times denied access to their lawyers, and detained in excess of the prescribed statutory period before being charged or released.

Madam Chair, under our Human Rights Defenders Project, the statistics are revealing: in 2003, 822 hrds were arrested throughout the country, necessitating the emergency deployment of 133 lawyers; in 2004 over 410 hrds were subjected to state attack and required legal assistance; in 2005 the number of hrds arrested had already surpassed the previous year's total by June. Significantly, in all the cases that we have handled the state has not achieved a single successful prosecution, indicating that the legislation has been used only as a means of restricting the legitimate activities of the hrds and to stifle any perceived dissent.

In addition, and as previously indicated, the recent Constitutional Amendment (No.17), will severely restrict the freedom of movement, association, assembly and expression of hrds who are considered to be acting contrary to the interests of the state when they publicise and criticise human rights violations perpetrated by the state at regional and international fora.

Madam Chair, we again urge the Commission to call upon the government of Zimbabwe to repeal or amend all repressive legislation which restricts the activities of hrds in Zimbabwe. This call has been repeated time and again, and will continue to be repeated until the state takes positive and concerted action to address the concerns and comply with its obligations under the African Charter.

Madam Chair, we particularly wish to draw the attention of the Commission to attacks on grassroots hrds in Zimbabwe, specifically those acting to protect the rights of their communities which have been affected by the recent and ongoing forced evictions and demolitions in Zimbabwe. Such hrds have been, and continue to be, subjected to physical, verbal and psychological torture by state agents for attempting to assert their fundamental rights. Such hrds have been denied access to their legal representatives in attempts to prevent them approaching the courts for urgent remedies, while court orders in their favour have been routinely ignored by the executive. There is substantiated evidence to show that they have been denied humanitarian assistance, prevented from registering with the local authorities for housing which will purportedly be provided by the government to victims of the forced evictions under the so-called Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle. There is further substantiated evidence to show that prominent hrds have been harassed and intimidated by ruling party youth, and that some have received threats of physical harm from senior state officials in attempts to dissuade them from continuing to resist the forced removals and publicising human rights violations against their communities. As a result of the failure by the state to provide protection against such violations, the hrds have been forced into hiding, which has had a negative impact on the promotion and protection of human rights in these affected communities.

Madam Chair, at the 37th Session of the African Commission, the government of Zimbabwe indicated that it maintained an open-door policy and would welcome a visit from the Special Rapporteur of HRDs. We would be encouraged to learn of progress in this regard, as it was not mentioned in the Report of the Special Rapporteur, and we would urge the Commission to call upon the government of Zimbabwe to urgently allow access by the Special Rapporteur of HRDs, together with the Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum-Seekers and Internally Displaced Persons, so that these grave issues can be investigated and addressed.

We thank you for your attention.

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