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Zimbabwe: The Human Rights Commission and the issues at stake
Phillip
Pasirayi
Extracted from Pambazuka News 249
April
05, 2006
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/rights/33261
The proposal
to establish a Human Rights Commission in Zimbabwe, a body whose
mandate will be to investigate and promote human rights issues is
an important one. Since the colonial era to the present, Zimbabwe
has known no culture of human rights and yet evidence is abound
in international law on the universality and the special regime
status that the human rights discourse has attained. The question
that we ought to ask ourselves as Zimbabweans is whether the ruling
ZANU PF elite, that have been the biggest human rights violator
since the attainment of independence in 1980 should be the one to
spearhead the debate on the establishment of a Human Rights Commission.
Phillip Pasirayi from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition assesses
the proposal.
This article locates the current debate on the establishment of
a Human Rights Commission in Zimbabwe and the commitment of President
Robert Mugabe's government in establishing a professional and independent
Human Rights Commission in line with the norms in other countries
within Africa, Europe and Asia. Issues that I shall consider in
this discussion are to do with the political impediments that will
render the process of establishing a Human Rights Commission in
Zimbabwe futile and far much divorced from the State's obligation
to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of the citizenry.
The proposal to establish a Human Rights Commission in Zimbabwe,
a body whose mandate will be to investigate and promote human rights
issues is an important one. Since the colonial era to the present,
Zimbabwe has known no culture of human rights and yet evidence is
abound in international law on the universality and the special
regime status that the human rights discourse has attained. The
question that we ought to ask ourselves as Zimbabweans is whether
the ruling ZANU PF elite, that have been the biggest human rights
violator since the attainment of independence in 1980 should be
the one to spearhead the debate on the establishment of a Human
Rights Commission.
The continental human rights watchdog, the African Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) has condemned Harare on more than
one occasion for violating human rights. The recently concluded
38th Ordinary Session of ACPHR held in Banjul, The Gambia in December
2005 was unequivocal in its condemnation of the Zimbabwean government
for being the main perpetrator of human rights. Prominent human
rights activist Gabriel Shumba who himself is a victim of government
torture and a group of Zimbabwean civil society representatives
testified before the Commission about the deteriorating human rights
situation in Zimbabwe.
If the human rights situation in Zimbabwe is in a sorry state who
then should be entrusted with the responsibility to spearhead the
initiative for establishing an independent Human Rights Commission.
Recently, Patrick Chinamasa, the Zimbabwean Minister of Justice
was reported in the State media saying that the ZANU PF highest
decision-making body, the Politburo had endorsed the proposal to
establish a Human Rights Commission. So far there has not been critical
debate about the implications of these overtures but what is clear
is the people's disgruntlement with the government of President
Mugabe for confusing governmental affairs with ZANU PF business.
The same thinking was demonstrated when it was the same Politburo
that was the first to discuss the establishment of an Electoral
Commission.
The question of who is the best person or what is the best institution
to spearhead the debate regarding the Human Rights Commission begs
another fundamental dimension to the process of establishing a more
functional human rights regime in Zimbabwe. This is the idea of
legitimacy. After being suspended and its subsequent withdrawal
from the Commonwealth for alleged human rights violations in 2003
and the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States,
again for human rights abuses, the government of President Mugabe
should be the last one to be entrusted with a crucial process of
establishing a Human Rights Commission.
At both the domestic and international level, the legitimacy of
the government of Zimbabwe is under serious contestation and so
are the outputs. The proposed Human Rights Commission is yet another
attempt by the ruling elite to hoodwink the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the entire international
community that ZANU PF is reforming and that it should be embraced
as a democratic country.
There is also need to critically reflect on the reasons that government
is giving in establishing the Human Rights Commission. Minister
Chinamasa told the weekly paper, The Sunday Mail of March 26, 2005
that the proposal to establish the Commission is "merely in line
with the trends" within the region and in Africa. He argued: "We
are setting up an independent institution that can investigate everybody,
including state actors. So it will have the same independence as
our judiciary and our Zimbabwe Electoral Commission."
In Zimbabwe's body politic the history of Commissions, moreso on
such contested issues such as human rights is fraught with irregularities.
After the massacre and torture by State security agents of thousands
of Zimbabwean defenceless citizens in Matabeleland and Midlands
provinces during the early 80s, President Mugabe appointed a Commission
led by Justice Chihambakwe to investigate human rights abuses but
decades have passed without the report known to the public. It is
this lack of political commitment and sheer Machiavellian tendencies
that will render the Human Rights Commission debate another monumental
failure. An example that is still fresh in people's memories is
the heavily condemned Operation Murambatsvina. A report on Murambatsvina
entitled, "State Fear: Zimbabwe's Tragedy is Africa's Shame" written
by Archbishop Pius Ncube et al exposes the government's conduct
which did not pay attention to the human rights of the affected
people. The report draws comparisons between President Mugabe and
Pol Pot, the former leader of the genocidal Khyme Rouge regime in
Cambodia.
Some scholars would ask how the proposed Human Rights Commission
would start its work against a background of concealment of the
truth regarding human rights violations. By proposing to establish
a Human Rights Commission, Zanu PF may unknowingly be driving a
final nail on its coffin. For it to be relevant the proposed Human
Rights Commission must begin with recovering the truth about Gukurahundi
and the murder of scores of Movement for Democratic Change activists
including Talent Mabika , Petros Jeka, Morgan Chiminya to mention
a few and the disappearance of democracy-yearning young Zimbabweans
such as Patrick Nabanyama.
The mandate of the Human Rights Commission in Zimbabwe must investigate
all the atrocities committed since the attainment of independence
in 1980. The Commission can go a long way in restoring a culture
of openness, accountability and the establishment of the rule-of-law
in Zimbabwe if its mandate is clearly defined from the onset. In
its investigations, the Commission must not merely be a platform
for vengeance but must seek broader ways of achieving justice and
begin a process of national healing and national development. Public
acknowledgement of past atrocities and naming of perpetrators goes
a long way in restoring relationships in a fractured society like
Zimbabwe.
The Commission must be staffed by people of integrity who have a
proven record of human rights activism. Appointment to the Human
Rights Commission must be done transparently and in a manner that
restores the confidence of the public in State institutions and
credentials must go beyond mere paper qualifications but this might
be the opportunity to resuscitate the process of national healing
and appointment of members of the clergy such as Bishops Trevor
Manhanga, Sebastian Bakare, Patrick Mutume, Reverend Charles Chiriseri,
Dr Rev Charles Mugaviri , Dr Rev Goodwill Shana and many other man
of cloth could go a long way in restoring the people's trust in
national institutions. In the past President Mugabe has handpicked
his close associates to run public institutions and this has severely
compromised the independence and impartiality of those institutions.
With the way ZANU PF abuses its majority in Parliament, it is difficult
to argue that appointment to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission
must be done through the Legislature. This vindicates Dr Lovemore
Madhuku, a Constitutional law expert and leader of the National
Constitutional Assembly who has argued that without a new constitution,
ZANU PF will continue to tinker with the laws and amend the Constitution
as it pleases. Madhuku argues: "We want a human rights commission
since there are several unreported and unattended to human rights
abuses since 1980 but especially in the last six years. But the
commission we want is one which all people will claim ownership
to, not this one which (Minister) Chinamasa and (President) Mugabe
are planning."
The legitimacy question of both Zanu PF and the process of establishing
a Human Rights Commission, including its mandate are no doubt matters
of great contention. It remains to be seen how Zimbabweans will
view the proposed Human Rights Commission, if at all they are afforded
the opportunity to voice their concerns.
Ironically the talk to establish a Human Rights Commission comes
hard on the heels of the arrest and unjustified incarceration of
opposition politicians in Manicaland on accusations of planning
an assassination plot against President Mugabe and the detention
and expulsion of student leaders for demonstrating against poverty
in Zimbabwean colleges and universities.
* Phillip Pasirayi-is Director of Information for Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition, an NGO advocating for human rights and
good governance in Zimbabwe.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
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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