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Inclusive government - Index of articles
Time
to ratify conventions
Zimbabwe Human
Rights NGO Forum
March 3, 2010
Human rights in Zimbabwe:
one year into the government of national unity (GNU) - time
to ratify conventions
The Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum (the Forum) calls on the Government of Zimbabwe
to ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture and other
Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and the International Convention
on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Zimbabwe
has a protracted and infamous history of gross human rights violations.
Violence, enforced
disappearances, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
has become endemic in Zimbabwe particularly, around major political
events like elections and referendums.
The Global
Political Agreement (GPA) signed between the three political
parties on 15 September 2008 acknowledges these challenges. The
principals to the agreement recognized the multiple threats to the
well-being of the people of Zimbabwe, the polarisation, divisions,
conflict and intolerance that characterised the socio-political
environment in the past and undertook to take effective measures
to stop, remedy and ensure non-recurrence of these violations.
In Article
XVIII (5) of the GPA, the parties committed themselves to inter
alia "promote the values and practices of tolerance, respect,
non-violence and dialogue as a means of resolving political differences."
This provision reaffirms a determination expressed in the preamble
to "act in a manner that demonstrates respect for the democratic
values of justice, fairness, openness, tolerance, equality, respect
of all persons and human rights".
Given the commitment
and determination shown by the parties to the GPA to reform the
human right culture in the country, the Forum is of the opinion
that a first step towards this would be the signing and ratification
of all international human rights instruments. In particular the
Forum implores the GNU to ratify the Convention Against Torture
and other Cruel Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and the Convention
for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Wherefore a
year after the inception of the GNU the Forum urges the inclusive
government to ratify these Covenants as a demonstration of its determination
and commitment to building a culture of human rights as envisaged
in the GPA.
Visit the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum fact
sheet
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