Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

African activists launch new campaign: 'Stand up for Zimbabwe'
International Bar Association (IBA)
May 23, 2008

http://www.ibanet.org/iba/article.cfm?article=169

Thousands of people in dozens of cities across Africa and the rest of the globe will demonstrate their solidarity with victims of rights abuses in Zimbabwe on Sunday, 25 May 2008.

The Stand Up For Zimbabwe campaign - organized by a coalition of African civil society organizations including the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, East Africa Law Society, Treatment Action Campaign, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and the Congress of South African Trade Unions - is highlighting the continuing political crisis in Zimbabwe and calling on people across the globe to press the Southern African Development Community, African Union, and the United Nations to act decisively to end systematic political violence in Zimbabwe and resolve the country's long-standing political crisis.

'The situation in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate because world leaders have let Zimbabwe's rulers persecute opposition activists and subvert democratic principles with impunity. This makes people lose faith in democratic processes,' said Regis Mtutu, spokesperson for the Treatment Action Campaign of South Africa. 'Zimbabweans opposed to ZANU-PF face horrific violence every day. As African civil society groups we are saying there has been enough hand wringing, division and ineptitude in dealing with the crisis in Zimbabwe. The consequences of the crisis reverberate across the region and we cannot sit idly while our Zimbabwean brothers and sisters are beaten, raped and driven away from their homes because they dare to exercise their democratic rights. African political and civil society leaders and other world leaders must act to stop the violence and other human rights violations.'

The global day of action on 25 May, a day traditionally used to celebrate the establishment of the African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity), is the start of a series of campaign events planned to press African and other world leaders to take effective action to resolve Zimbabwe's crisis.

Events are scheduled in the following locations:

South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Namibia, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Lesotho, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cameroon and Senegal to name a few.

Details of the campaign are posted on: www.standupforzimbabwe.org

Supporters of the Stand Up For Zimbabwe campaign are calling for:

• the Southern African Development Community (SADC), African Union and United Nations to act immediately to protect Zimbabweans from organized political violence;
• decisive action to ensure a resolution of Zimbabwe's electoral impasse and peaceful transition of government;
• survivors and victims of violence to receive immediate medical, humanitarian and legal aid;
• unrestricted humanitarian aid to be allowed into the country to meet these needs;
• the African Union to send a team of eminent persons to Zimbabwe to investigate the violence, and work towards ending the political crisis;
• SADC, under the direction of the African Union, to ensure an environment which allows a free and fair presidential election - free from violence and intimidation and with free campaigning by all parties before and during the presidential run off;
• African and international human rights monitors and electoral observers and monitors to be admitted to the country, allowed to travel freely and assess and report on conditions. The electoral observers and monitors must be composed of a large number of skilled electoral experts, with a high standing in their countries and on the continent;
• the electoral observers and monitors to remain in Zimbabwe to observe the counting and the announcement of the result;
• the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to run and manage the forthcoming presidential elections in an impartial manner according to its obligations under Zimbabwe constitutional and electoral laws; and
• in the event of an electoral dispute where one candidate refuses to accept the result of the run-off, the African Union to take the lead in negotiating or mediating the impasse to reflect the will of the people of Zimbabwe.

Nicole Fritz from the Southern African Litigation Centre - one of the coalition of African groups working on the Stand Up For Zimbabwe campaign - said: 'We are determined to show solidarity with Zimbabweans who face violence every day, and now must do so even in their place of refuge - South Africa. The campaign is a call to the region and the world to act decisively to end the violence in Zimbabwe and to resolve the ongoing crisis but it now also signals that the only strangers to our country, South Africa, are those who would use violence and intimidation against others.'

Gugulethu Moyo, Programme Lawyer for Southern African Issues for the International Bar Association added: 'The people of Zimbabwe continue to suffer horrific violence and oppression. They are victims of a belligerent regime and an ineffectual international response. The suffering has gone on long enough. It is time now for all those concerned about the suffering of millions of Zimbabwean people to stand together to press world leaders to meet their obligations to protect people from an abusive government.'

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.

TOP