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ZLHR Annual Report 2005
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
November 29, 2006

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Chairperson and Executive Director’s statement
The period January - December 2005 has been most eventful for Zimbabwe as a country and ZLHR as an organisation primarily because it is in this period that Zimbabwe held Parliamentary elections for the Sixth Parliament of Zimbabwe, thousands were affected by the local man made tsunami "Operation Murambatsvina", and that monetary authorities watched helplessly as inflation galloped away, leading to increased violations of fundamental rights and freedom.Furthermore, the operating environment made human rights programmes and activities of human rights defenders increasingly difficult.  

ZLHR witnessed an increase in the number of full time staff and this further consolidated and strengthened our programme delivery capacities. We were able to recruit two Projects Lawyers for the Public Interest Litigation Project which already had one lawyer; this was necessitated by the increase in the demand of our pro bono legal services as necessitated by the prevailing political climate where we had to respond to distress calls by human rights defenders, impunity, unlawful actions by private and state functionaries. We also recruited a Clerk to assist in the finance department and a Communications Officer to manage our website, reports, materials and the numerous national and international communication efforts with members and partners.  

The year 2005 witnessed an unprecedented rise in status of the organisation as we were granted observer status with the African Commission on Human and People's Rights and also Affiliate Status with the International Commission of Jurists. In the same vein we have been confirmed as the secretariat of the SADC Lawyers' Association Human Rights Committee. We have also been increasingly visible in the media and our advocacy efforts have been well received by members of the public.  

The outreach done through our programmes during the first half of 2005 far exceeded our initial expectations. Through the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Project consultation workshops we reached out to 127 people (66 males and 61 females), representation at the youth workshop constituted a total of thirty-six (36) participants (learners and teachers) twenty-one (21) of them female and fifteen (15) male, while the legal sub unit of the project handled individual cases as well as one for more than thirty AIDS orphans affected by "Operation Murambatsvina". Success has also been noted in the process of developing a National HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Charter.  

Public Education and Human Rights training reached out directly to more than 300 people through training workshops. Through the six human rights public talks held at the Book Café we reached out to an estimated 240 people.  

Our Rapid Reaction Unit under the Public Interest Litigation project has been very strained in terms of resources and at the same time the cases needing attention has been overwhelming; this was due to two events during the year 2005, i.e the election period and Operation Murambatsvina where affected people approached us for legal assistance. In response to the Operation, more than 1150 families received free legal services (about 300 families from Hatcliff, about 800 families from Porta farm and about 50 from Goromonzi, Waterfalls and Glen Norah). Other individual cases have been handled by our Public Interest Litigation Department as people either came on their own or were referred by other NGOs.  

We were able to present a number of communications at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights; and some of these were seized and others had provisional orders granted. Material production has also been visible on our activity schedule where we produced brochures and pamphlets on human rights education.

Nokuthula Moyo
Chairperson

Arnold Tsunga
Executive Director

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