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The Legal Monitor - Issue 32
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
February 15, 2010

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Progress? What Progress?

The inclusive government has failed to deliver. Rights violations continue while most benchmarks set out in the Inter Party Political Agreement (IPA) have not been met, a review of the government's year in office by a coalition of civil society organisations has concluded.

Apart from bringing relative economic stability, the coalition government has remained fragile and cannot agree on how to implement commitments they agreed and signed up to in the IPA.

This brutal assessment is contained in a 64-page report card by the Civil Society Monitoring Mechanism (CISOMM), a non partisan network of civil society organisations dedicated to monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the IPA. The monitoring process is meant to hold the three political principalsnamely President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara-to account.

The CISOMM review covers the period February 2009 to February 2010.

One year on, the politicians whose responsibility it was to execute the mandate of the IPA, have not been able to put their partisan issues aside for the benefit of the nation; and instead have continued to stall over an ever-increasing number of 'outstanding issues', which look set to remain outstanding. On the eve of the anniversary, these issues threaten to tear apart the inclusive government and reverse the gains of the last 12 months, regrettably returning the country to the pre- June 2008 era," reads part of the CISOMM report which was launched last Friday in Harare.

The coalition government failed on all but one cluster under the seven clusters monitored by CISOMM. The clusters are economic stability, constitutional reform, human rights, institutional transformation, humanitarian and food assistance, media reform and freedom of expression and political justice and transition. Economic recovery in 2009 was one of the only positive outcomes of the coalition government with tangible effects for the general population.

CISOMM noted that the launch of the Short Term Economic Recovery Plan (STERP) and the crafting and implementation of STERP's 100 Day Plan were major steps in the fulfillment of Article 3 of the IPA.

However, the monitoring body said the government must speedily constitute the long awaited National Economic Council to fulfill its commitment to serious, long term economic reform and recovery as provided for under the IPA.

CISOMM said the constitution making process remained highly politicised and had turned into a political contestation between the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and ZANU PF due to the latter's determination to impose the controversial Kariba Draft.

"There has been limited citizen participation in the process. Of particular note is the media blackout of the process or the partisan reporting that has occurred. The lack of political will, evidenced by the failure to create conditions conducive for the writing of a new constitution, exhibited during the year 2009 could impede the progress," CISOMM said.

Although not as pervasive as before, CISOMM said police continued to harass human rights defenders. Political activists who engage in peaceful protests or meetings remain at risk of arbitrary arrest, detention, beatings and attempted abductions.

"The police continued to use POSA and other repressive legislation, as well as overt violence and intimidation to clamp down on student leaders and university students engaged in peaceful protest. Teachers, mainly in the rural areas, also bore the brunt of intimidation by ZANU PF militias. Equally, journalists were frequently harassed in the course of their work and were not allowed to operate in a free media environment. Human rights lawyers often faced interference by the police during the discharge of their duties. Lawyers were prevented from gaining access to their clients, and were often baselessly charged with crimes to prevent them from attending to matters," reads the report.

Far from ensuring that human rights training was provided to the uniformed forces, the culture of violence remained endemic within security institutions as demonstrated by the brutal treatment of prison guards and police recruits by their superiors while missing abductees remain unaccounted for.

CISOMM said the Chiadzwa diamond fields remained the site of gross human rights violations that almost resulted in the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process while operations have continued with unscrupulous attempts to sell the gems through government connected companies.

On institutional transformation, the monitoring body noted that appointments to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, the Zimbabwe Media Commission and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission were marred by political bargaining as opposed to the requirement to make appointments on the basis of competence, professional ability and positive personal attributes. CISOMM said the Attorney General's Office persecuted several human rights defenders with vigour, while the non implementation of court rulings by the Zimbabwe Republic Police and other law enforcement agencies continued unabated.

Under the humanitarian and food assistance cluster, CISOMM observed that traditional leaders and councillors continued to perpetrate political discrimination in relation to the distributiion of food aid while government sponsored food and agricultural assistance was distributed along political lines in many parts of the country. Often, unelected ZANU PF officials oversaw processes that should have been facilitated by elected Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials, according to CISOMM.

The watchdog body said the restrictive media framework remained in place with government failing to repeal repressive legislation and to liberalize the airwaves.

The coalition government also disappointed by failing to establish the mechanism to make recommendations to government on national healing. CISOMM said the government failed to consult victims of violence as to which form of justice and national healing process they desire while the conferment of national hero status remains a purely partisan exercise by the ZANU PF Politburo.

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