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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
Zimbabwe:
No justice for the victims of forced evictions
Amnesty International
AI Index: AFR 46/005/2006
September 08, 2006
http://www.amnesty.org/resources/pdf/Zimbabwe_No_Justice.pdf - (3.79MB)
Introduction
In May 2005 the
government of Zimbabwe launched Operation
Murambatsvina, a programme of mass forced evictions and demolitions
of homes and informal businesses. The operation targeted poor urban
and surrounding (peri-urban) areas nationwide. The evictions and
demolitions were carried out without adequate notice, court orders,
due process, legal protection, redress or appropriate relocation
measures, in violation of Zimbabwe’s obligations under international
human rights law. They were carried out despite the government’s
acknowledgement that the country already faced a severe housing
shortage.1 During the operation
police used excessive force: property was destroyed and people were
beaten.
In a report released
on 22 July 2005, the United Nations (UN) Special Envoy on Human
Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, who is also the Executive Director
of the UN Human Settlement Programme (UNHABITAT), Anna Tibaijuka,
estimated that some 700,000 people had lost their homes, their livelihoods
or both between May and July 2005. She stated that Operation Murambatsvina
"was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner,
with indifference to human suffering, and, in repeated cases, with
disregard to several provisions of national and international legal
frameworks."
The mass forced
evictions of Operation Murambatsvina constitute a serious violation
of human rights, in particular the right to an adequate standard
of living, including adequate housing. Under international law the
government of Zimbabwe is obliged to ensure the victims of human
rights violations committed during Operation Murambatsvina have
access to effective judicial or other appropriate remedies to vindicate
those rights, including by providing reparations to the victims
of Operation Murambatsvina.2
Amnesty International
investigated and documented the human rights violations that took
place as a consequence of Operation Murambatsvina, and raised the
organisation’s concerns with the government of Zimbabwe, the UN,
the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and
the African Union.3 One year after
the mass forced evictions Amnesty International returned to Zimbabwe
to investigate what, if any, action had been taken by the government
of Zimbabwe to restore the human rights of the hundreds of thousands
of victims of Operation Murambatsvina. The delegation found the
government has failed to ensure adequate reparations to the victims.
The victims’ own efforts to secure effective judicial remedies have
been frustrated by the authorities’ repeated disregard of court
orders and obstruction of access to the courts. Despite numerous
public statements about a reconstruction programme to address the
homelessness created by Operation Murambatsvina, almost none of
the victims have received any assistance from the government. On
the contrary the government has repeatedly hindered UN efforts to
provide emergency shelter and subjected some of the most vulnerable
people to repeated forced evictions.
This report is
based primarily on the findings of an Amnesty International mission
to Zimbabwe in April and May 2006, supplemented by desk research
during July and August. The Amnesty International mission visited
Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Gwanda, Victoria Falls, Masvingo, Chipinge
and Chimanimani, and interviewed victims, NGO and humanitarian agency
personnel and local government officials. Despite repeated requests
the delegation was not granted meetings with central government
officials.
1 Government
of Zimbabwe, National Housing Delivery Programme, 2000, quoted from
the Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to
Zimbabwe to assess the Scope and Impact of Operation Murambatsvina
by the UN Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in
Zimbabwe, 22 July 2005, p 24.
2 Amnesty International
documented the impact of forced evictions and denial of remedies
in a case study, "Zimbabwe: Shattered Lives
– the case of Porta Farm", Amnesty International Index AFR
46/04/2006, 31 March 2006.
3 Amnesty International,
"Open Letter from AI to President Robert Mugabe on Forced Evictions
in Zimbabwe", AI Index: AFR 46/019/2005,
13 June 2005; "Zimbabwe: Joint Appeal by Amnesty International,
the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights", AI Index: AFR 46/024/2005,
23 June 2005; "Amnesty International's concerns at the 56th
session of the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees", AI Index: IOR 41/060/2005, 3 October 2005.
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