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A place in the sun - A report on the state of the rule of law in Zimbabwe after the Global Political Agreement of September 2008
Bar Human Rights Committee
June 29, 2010

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Summary

http://www.barhumanrights.org.uk/reports.php

Executive summary

1. The aim of the mission was to investigate and report back on the state of the rule of law in Zimbabwe since the signing of the Global Political Agreement on 15 September 2008.

2. The mission received a number of reports from persons it interviewed in Zimbabwe. The overwhelming weight of the reports was to the effect that rule of law issues had not improved in the course of the year since the signing of the Global Political Agreement and many interviewees expressed the view that the position had grown worse.

3. Incidents of extra-judicial killings, kidnapping, torture and other serious human rights abuses have been pervasive in Zimbabwe for years but assumed epidemic proportions during the Presidential run-off elections of June 2008. Such human rights abuses continue to occur. These abuses remain un-investigated by the authorities.

4. The culture of impunity on the part of the police and the state security forces (the army and central intelligence organisation), noted with dismay on many previous occasions over the course of the past ten years by many independent bodies, remains unchanged. In a negative development, the army even appears to have extended its operations to unlawful diamond extraction and trading in the diamond fields of Marange. This culture of impunity has not been addressed by the present government.

5. By far the majority of the senior judiciary remains fundamentally compromised by state patronage, grants of land and other gifts given to them by the former government. The present government has not sought to claw-back such inducements from the senior judiciary nor has there been any policy initiative directed at re-establishing the integrity of the senior judiciary in the eyes of the public.

6. The magistracy is under pressure as it has been for years and magistrates are subject to threats, intimidation, arrest and prosecution when they displease the authorities. In one notorious case referred to in the body of this report a magistrate in Eastern Zimbabwe was himself prosecuted by the authorities as a result of having granted bail to the Deputy Minister designate for Agriculture, Mr Roy Bennett. One interviewee described the magistracy as the unsung heroes of recent years.

7. The Law Society of Zimbabwe endeavours to represent its membership against a background of intimidation and harassment of, in particular, human rights lawyers. It reflects greatly to the credit of the Law Society that in the absence of government action in relation to the compromising of the senior judiciary, the Law Society has taken the initiative in seeking to open a dialogue with the judiciary. The Law Society stands out as an organisation prepared vocally and committed actively to oppose measures which are anathema to the rule of law and to support its membership in the discharge of their duties as lawyers.

8. Accounts of harassment and intimidation of lawyers are referred to in the body of the report. Two examples provide illustrations of what confronts the profession in Zimbabwe today. Whilst the mission was present in Zimbabwe a former President of the Law Society was arrested apparently for nothing more than having represented his client's legitimate interests. Lawyers in Manicaland, Eastern Zimbabwe, have been threatened with violence and, in one case, with lethal force by the police and the military in the course of seeking to discharge their professional obligations to their clients.

9. The physical infrastructure for the teaching of law is crumbling: the mission saw for itself the dilapidated state of the Law Faculty of the University of Zimbabwe. Glimpses of hope for the future of the teaching of law in Zimbabwe are to be found in the dedication of its staff. However, the mission was deeply disturbed by accounts it received that the Central Intelligence Organisation had infiltrated the student body in the Law Faculty with the result that the content of lectures and open debate in seminars was circumscribed by fear of the consequences of candour.

10. Access to justice is virtually non-existent. The legal aid system is so starved of funds that the Legal Aid Directorate is itself on the verge of collapse. Although small numbers of cases are taken on by certain independent organisations such as the Legal Resources Foundation and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights who need and deserve more financial support than they receive at present, the picture as regards access to justice is grim.

11. The mission concludes that there has been no improvement and quite possibly a further decline in respect for the rule of law since the signing of the Global Political Agreement (recently a former President of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Beatrice Mtetwa, was quoted as saying "it has never been as bad as it is now": The Times, 4 March 2010) and that significant concern remains in relation to all aspects of the rule of law in Zimbabwe.

12. Notwithstanding the prolonged and systematic assault on the rule of law by the authorities over the course of the past decade or more, it is a testament to the commitment and bravery of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean lawyers, an honourable minority in the serving judiciary, certain retired judges, groups representing civil society and human rights defenders that Zimbabwe has retained the intellectual infrastructure in which respect for the rule of law will flourish in more propitious political conditions.

13. The mission considers that there are strong grounds for SADC in particular and the international community in general to increase targeted support for institutions and bodies concerned with the rule of law in Zimbabwe by urgently remitting financial and institutional aid to such institutions and bodies, for example, the Law Society of Zimbabwe, the Law Faculty of the University of Zimbabwe in Harare and organisations providing legal aid and other services to facilitate access to justice for the population.

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