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This article participates on the following special index pages:
New Constitution-making process - Index of articles
Civil Society diverse views on the draft Constitution
Zimbabwe Human
Rights NGO Forum
March
12, 2013
Introduction
On 31 January
2013, Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Select Committee (COPAC) published
the final draft
of the Zimbabwean Constitution with 345 sections. The Draft will
be contested
in a Referendum listed for the 16th March 2013. In this Special
Edition, we present some of the views emanating from the Zimbabwe
Human Rights Forum Secretariat, members and partners on this Draft.
These views include:
Transitional
Justice
There are many
aspects of the draft that are relevant to Zimbabwe’s transitional
justice discourse. The Forum presents this brief analysis on the
key issues related to transitional justice in Zimbabwe. Please follow
the link for the Full Report
Human
Rights and the Draft Constitution
The Research
and Advocacy Unit (RAU) discuses two
basic and contrary models for the crafting of constitutions
in circumstances similar to those facing Zimbabwe after 15th September
2008. The first one is a “transformative” approach in
which the constitution makers try to change essential elements of
the constitutional culture – to make life different in the
future – the other is a “preservative” approach
which attempts to protect longstanding practices. Article VI of
the GPA
explicitly indicates that the intention of the agreement is that
a transformative constitution is to be drafted which “deepens”
democratic values in Zimbabwe.
Views
from the media
The mass media
are assigned an important role in political campaigns on popular
votes. As the holding of a referendum on a new constitution on March
16 2012 approaches, the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
would be carrying daily media updates on this momentous event until
March 15, the eve of voting. This is aimed primarily at establishing
whether the media is communicating pertinent information to the
public during the final referendum campaigns. Please read the Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe’s first of such updates
for Monday, March 10th 2013, here.
General
Analysis of substantive provisions
On 12 February,
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) released its final simplified
analysis of the Draft Constitution approved for referendum by the
Parliament of Zimbabwe on Wednesday 6 February 2013. Updating their
previous analysis, which was circulated
in September 2012, this final analysis
provides information on the key provisions of each Chapter of the
Draft Constitution in simplified form. Comments are made in relation
to each Chapter – the black text indicates positive sections,
while the blue text indicates areas which ZLHR believes remain problematic.
In addition, the red text indicates changes which have been made
to the Draft Constitution since the previous 2012 draft, either
by COPAC or the principals to the Global
Political Agreement. The text highlighted in yellow indicates
whether the changes made are additions, removals or amendments to
the previous draft. You can access the update analysis here.
Election-related provisions
This provisional
paper seeks to analyse the provisions of COPAC’s Draft
Constitution which have a bearing on elections and electoral processes.
The approach adopted in this paper is that each provision which
has a bearing on elections and electoral processes is identified,
explained and analysed. The analysis focuses on the legal meaning
of the provision and its practical implications. Special attention
is paid to how any provision relates to the current law with a view
to illustrating the extent, if any, to which the Draft Constitution
addresses defects on electoral matters in the current constitution.
As this analysis was provisional, please contact ZESN directly for
an updated analysis.
Visit the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum fact
sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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