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10 year Anniversary: Celebrating 10 years of health and human rights activism
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR)
November 09, 2012

The month of November 2012 marks ZADHR's 10 years of the existence and excellent service to the people of Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) is a membership based, independent, voluntary, non-profit making organisation that was formed on the 26th of November 2002 in response to the rising levels of organized violence and torture between 2000 and 2002 and the reluctance of the medical profession to formulate an appropriate response through documentation and reporting of torture and at times offering medical support through its membership.

ZADHR played and continues to play an important role in exposing torture and its medical consequences. Exposing torture is an important advocacy tool for ending impunity and bringing to light the scale of the physical and psychological impact of torture on the Zimbabwean population. There is high value in medically incontrovertible evidence. Between 2003 and 2010, ZADHR has been the organisation relied upon to provide information based on medical evidence of organized violence and torture which portrays the scale and severity of trauma being inflicted upon Zimbabwean citizens. The organisation documented organised violence and torture (OVT) from a clinical perspective and produced various press statements in this regard.

This information has been relied upon as an accurate source by media and governments alike. ZADHR's advocacy led to the passing of a resolution on Zimbabwe by the World Medical Association (WMA) in 2007 calling upon the government of Zimbabwe to put an end to torture in Zimbabwe and on the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and on the Zimbabwe Medical Association to ensure adequate care was provided to victims.

Through the years ZADHR has also has made strides in;

• Training and building capacity of more than 3000 health professions (doctors, nurses and student health workers) on torture, management of victims, documentation of human rights violations and advocacy and continues to do so.
• Advocacy on conditions of prison detention and training of prison officers on human rights as well as educating more than 1000 prisoners on their rights as prisoners.
• Establishing a Zimbabwe Health Students Network to get student health workers actively involved in advocacy on human rights violations.

In 2009, ZADHR was honored with the Jonathan Mann Health and Human Rights Award in recognition of the organisation's work in health and human rights in Zimbabwe.

With that in mind, ZADHR is humbled with the support received over the years from various stakeholders and chief among them the people of Zimbabwe.

Visit the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights fact sheet

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