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Report on MMPZ’s participation in the 53rd Session of the
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Banjul, The
Gambia
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
April 26, 2013
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Introduction
This year’s
Forum on the participation of NGOs as well as the Ordinary session
of the ACHPR were held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel from the 9th to
the 23rd of April 2013. The African Centre for Democracy and Human
Rights Studies (ACDHRS), which is an independent non-governmental
pan-African organization, established in The Gambia in 1989, planned
these. However some civic society organizations, mostly from West
Africa boycotted this event citing concerns over the continuing
human rights abuses by the host country. The sessions were however
held regardless. The NGO Forum was held from the April 6th to April
8th 2013 and was followed by the ACHPR conference, which was held
from the 9th to the 23rd of April. Public sessions ended on the
14th of April.
The Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) representative Molly Chimhanda attended
both these events.
Other representatives
from Zimbabwean civil society who attended both meetings were Susan
Mutambasere from the Zimbabwe
Human Rights NGO Forum, Jacqueline Chikakano (MISA-Zimbabwe),
Patience Zirima from the Media
Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ), Dzimbabwe Chimbga, Belinda Chinowawa
from the Zimbabwe
Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and Primrose Mungwari from the
Zimbabwe
Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA). The state delegates from Zimbabwe
who attended the ACHPR conference included the Acting Permanent
Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs,
Mr Maxwell Ranga and Mrs Mabel Msika (Director, Policy and Research
Ministry of Justice).
Seeing as Zimbabwe
is headed towards an election, Zimbabwean CSOs held a meeting prior
to the session and agreed on lobbying points. These included:
- Informing
the Commission about the major political processes that took place
and are to take place in Zimbabwe, that is the Constitutional
Referendum and pending Elections
- Highlighting
concerns over the shrinking space for CSOs in Zimbabwe following
the continued arrests and detention of human rights defenders
since the beginning of 2013.
- The need
for the protection of the right to information following the confiscation
of radio sets by the police.
As an organisation
MMPZ sought to:
- Lobby and
inform the Commission on and of the state of freedom of expression
and information rights in Zimbabwe;
- To work
in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and
other CSOs to address other issues of human rights concerns in
Zimbabwe.
- Making the
organisation and its activities public at a regional and international
level by networking with different members from different organisations
such as human rights institutions, NGOs, commissioners and state
delegates both from Zimbabwe and international states.
- Urging the
human rights commission to look at the problems Zimbabwe has been
facing particularly the lack of political will by the government
to implement the internationally recognised standards of issues
to do with access to information and freedom of expression.
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