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Rehabilitation works and is a torture survivor's right
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
June 25, 2012

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (the Forum) joins the rest of the world in commemorating the United Nations (UN) International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June. In commemorating this day the Forum remembers those who have died and those who are destined to spend the rest of their lives in a state of trauma as a consequence of torture.

Internationally, torture is regarded as a crime against humanity and the perpetrators are viewed as "the enemies of all humankind". It is an indictment against the state that torture continues to exist in Zimbabwe despite it being prohibited in the Constitution.

The theme for this year's commemoration, "Rehabilitation works and is a torture survivor's right" exhorts all states, as the custodians of the peoples' rights, to provide mechanisms to rehabilitate torture victims as a right. It is therefore sad that the Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration, set up under the Global Political Agreement, is still to execute its mandate of interrogating measures to rehabilitate both individual survivors of torture and their communities. Instead of harassing and undermining human rights defenders, the Forum urges the state to partner the human rights watchdogs in the fight for torture survivors' rights, including rehabilitation.

Zimbabwe is a nation with a long history of gross human rights violations abetted by a culture of impunity. The now pervasive culture of impunity has led to lawlessness and abuse of power by some law enforcement agents. This abuse of power and lack of respect for the law was recently demonstrated by Shamva police when they severely assaulted residents at Canterbury Mine resulting in the death of one person.

Over the years, torture, cruel, inhuman and/or degrading treatment has become a central element of state agents' treatment of persons perceived as state opponents. Torture has been used to intimidate, punish and extract confessions from criminal suspects, political activists and human rights defenders as well as members of the public. Victims and their families have had to bear the brunt of dealing with the aftermath of torture on their own. Working on the consensus that torture is inhuman and degrading for both the victims and perpetrators, it is incumbent upon our society to take responsibility for past acts of torture and provide appropriate remedies for victims thus enabling them to carry on with their lives. Rehabilitation is the remedy which empowers the victims of torture to resume as full a life as possible while encouraging perpetrators to repent.

This year's commemorations are significant as they come at a time when the Government of Zimbabwe has announced its commitment to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and/or Degrading Treatment and its Optional Protocol and subsequently criminalise torture. The Forum urges the government to translate its commitment into action as a matter of urgency and implores it to establish structures and institutions for the rehabilitation of victims of torture.

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