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Constitution awareness meeting in Marondera
Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights)
May 19, 2010

Zimbabwe Human Rights Association yesterday held a constitution awareness meeting at Chief Nenguwo's homestead in Marondera's ward 16, Mawarire village.

The meeting was attended by more than fifty participants from in and around Mawarire Village, with some of them having traveled from communities more than ten kilometers away.

Amongst the issues raised during the meeting, was the continued use of violence and intimidation by ZANU PF party loyalists to gain people's support. This has raised a lot of fear and despondence among the people, especially after the signing of the Global Political Agreement. Many people had put all their hopes in the inclusive government to put an end to such human rights violations. However, not much seems to have changed. People are still being forced to attend rallies and any ZANU PF political meetings. One of the major concerns that the people raised was the issue pertaining to selected representatives that would speak to the Parliament Selection Committee on the Constitution (COPAC) on what the people want included in the constitution. In addition, there are prevalent reports of youths who are forcing people to vote for the Kariba draft.

Notably, nearly half of the participants were women, which is a major development in women's participation in the area. Women were not only present, but also raised concerns while making contributions of they want in the constitution. These included laws that curb police corruption, 50/50 gender presentation at all level of society as well as in governance issues, fear of he 2008 victimization of all who take part after COPAC leaves and also the reliability of COPAC in taking the people's view as they are.

Despite all the challenges and the fears, which were raised, the people of Mawire vowed to go in large numbers when COPAC comes and contribute in writing the country's next supreme law.

Mawire villagers welcomed ZimRights efforts in giving a platform to discuss and share information on the constitution making process. They also urged the organization to keep up its awareness programmes in remote areas, especially on the constitution because few are at the disposal of current issues.

ZimRights remains stead in giving as much civic education as possible on the constitution to all grassroots communities, in spite of the violent atmosphere in the country. The organisation will continue working to ensure that both the process and the content of the constitution are people driven.

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