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Labour Leaders' Human Rights, Physical Integrity and Lives Threatened in Zimbabwe:
Canada must act now!
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)
May 20, 2005

Kenneth V. Georgetti wrote to the Canadian government today, as a matter of urgency, on behalf of more than three million Canadian working women and men affiliated to the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). The President of the CLC expressed concern and outrage at the recent attacks against the elected leadership of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), who are now the subject of physical assaults and death threats.

Recently, a number of ZCTU elected leaders and staff members have been subjected to police harassment. They have also been assaulted and followed by unidentified persons on a number of occasions (recent incidents are listed below). We now fear for their lives.

These actions culminated last Friday, May 13, 2005, with an armed police raid on the ZCTU offices, when the police seized files and computer diskettes, alleging that the ZCTU is involved in fraudulent activities, including illegal dealings in foreign currency.

This despicable attempt to intimidate and paralyze the ZCTU – on the eve of the ILO Annual Conference where Zimbabwe’s record of trade union violations will be reviewed – is completely unacceptable.

Subsequent to our previous communications with Canadian parliamentarians, the Canadian Ambassador to Zimbabwe and Canada’s Foreign Affairs officials, we ask the Canadian government to remind the government of Zimbabwe of its obligations to uphold trade union rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Zimbabwe Constitution, and ILO Declaration of Principles and Rights at Work.

We also urge Canada to strongly and unequivocally call on the Zimbabwean government to cease this policy of repression of trade union rights, to guarantee the physical integrity and lives of all ZCTU leaders and employees, and to take action against the police and civilians who have breached the laws which protect trade union rights.

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