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181 women and children arrested in Bulawayo and more than 70 women and children arrested in Harare
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
February 14, 2006

© Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights

On 13 February 2006, approximately one hundred and eighty one (181) human rights defenders, under the banner of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), in central Bulawayo were arrested as they were dispersing from a peaceful protest. The detainees have been charged with violating section 24 of the notorious Public Order and Security Act for participating in an unsanctioned procession, which charges they deny.

ZLHR has been advised and expresses its outrage that those arrested were exposed to heavy rains and the harsh elements as they were detained in the open police courtyard at Bulawayo Central police station for several hours before being moved to cells at around 22:30hrs. Such treatment is inhuman and degrading and flies in the face of basic fundamental rights that are due to all human beings, including the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners (1990) which provide that all detainees shall be treated with the respect due to their inherent dignity and value as human beings and shall not be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.

Among those currently incarcerated are fourteen (14) infants. This is a direct violation of accused persons’ rights in that, no female detainee who is breastfeeding a baby shall be detained without the authority of the Officer Commanding the Province, who must examine each case and decide on the necessity of detention. There is no indication that such an investigation was carried out in the present case. ZLHR strongly condemns this flagrant disregard of the rights of infants by putting their health and that of their mothers at risk through mass detentions. The arrested persons have been released today and the police

On 14 February 2006, over twenty (20) uniformed police, armed with baton sticks, and some sporting full riot gear, arrested 192 women from WOZA and five (5) infants in Harare at lunchtime today (14 February 2006) as they gathered in the city centre as part of a peaceful protest against social and economic injustice facing women in Zimbabwe today. The women were rounded up and callously loaded into trucks marked "City of Harare Municipal Police" to be taken to the Law and Order section at Harare Central police station. Mr. Tafadzwa Mugabe, a lawyer from the Rapid Reaction Unit of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) who attended to the distress call, was harassed, verbally abused and finally arrested and bundled into the truck with his clients. Amongst the detainees are a considerable number of elderly women, as well as at least one young child of around 4 years of age.

Lawyers from ZLHR Rapid Reaction Unit are currently attempting to secure their release at Harare Central police station.

In the circumstances ZLHR calls upon the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and members thereof to respect the rights of accused persons and uphold due process more particularly in that they ought to:

• Acknowledge with respect to these pre-trial detentions, that Liberty is the rule, to which detention must be the exception
• Respect the right of accused persons to be promptly informed of reasons for arrest and detention, and of any charges against oneself
• Acknowledge and respect the right of the detained hrds to access to and assistance of a lawyer
  To take heed that in the performance of their duty, law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons.
• Acknowledge and respect the rights of these hrds to assemble, associate and freely express their opinions without hindrance.

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