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Government extends invitation for African Commission to visit Zimbabwe
MISA-Zimbabwe
May 19, 2009

The Zimbabwean government has extended an invitation to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) to visit Zimbabwe on a promotional visit to assess and assist with progress towards the implementation of fundamental legislative and policy reforms in compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.

The Permanent Secretary for Justice and Legal Affairs, and head of the government delegation to the 45th Ordinary Session of the ACHPR, underway in Banjul, The Gambia, David Mangota, said the visit should be a promotional one as opposed to calls by civil society for the Commission to conduct a fact finding mission to assess the situation in Zimbabwe.

The Commission's Chairperson Justice Sanji Mmasenono Monageng thanked the Zimbabwean delegation for the invitation saying it had been noted.

A promotional visit is designed to assess progress on the ground as well as assist on how best to proceed with reforms to comply with provisions of the African Charter and other regional and international human rights instruments as opposed to a fact finding mission which is undertaken to investigate specific human rights violations.

In his pitch for a promotional visit, Mangota alluded to the all stakeholders' media conference facilitated and convened by the Ministry of Information and Publicity in Zimbabwe's resort town of Kariba, the Short-Term Economic Recovery Programme (STERP) and plans to establish an independent Human Rights Commission as evidence of government's commitment to undertake fundamental reforms.

On the alleged abduction and detention of the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) Jestina Mukoko, who is also a former television news anchor with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, he described Mukoko as a "common criminal" who was being charged with a criminal offence and not in her capacity as a human rights defender.

In a statement on 13 May 2009, the NGO Forum which met in the Gambian capital ahead of the ACHPR session, called for a fact finding mission comprising the Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights Defenders, Freedom of Expression, Rights of Women, and Refugees as well as the Chairman of the Working Group on Torture.

The statement was delivered by the Executive Director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies Hannah Forster on behalf of the NGO Forum (ACDHRS).

The Ngo Forum, however, welcomed the formation of the unity government and the ensuing efforts to return to normalcy in both Zimbabwe and Kenya, but noted that respect for freedom of the press continued to be a challenge in Africa with the constant formulation of draconian laws, harassment, intimidation, killings and arbitrary detention particularly in countries such as Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

"We urge the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression in Africa to investigate the discrimination of the media, the existence of redundant laws, especially electoral laws in the aforementioned countries," said Forster.

The concerns of the NGO Forum were reiterated by MISA-Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and Zimbabwe NGO-Forum in their respective statements to the Commission.

Visit the MISA-Zimbabwe fact sheet

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