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Opinion
on Government of Zimbabwe-s response to UPR
Danielle
Connolly
October 14, 2011
The closing
remarks delivered by the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs,
P.A. Chinamasa at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva
on 12 October 2011 tragically demonstrate how Zimbabwean citizens
can expect to have their rights denied in perpetuum by this Government.
In particular, Minister Chinamasa, leading the Government delegation
at the Universal Periodic Review process, rejected calls to abide
by the civil and political rights owed to the population by virtue
of our acceptance of various international human rights norms and
instruments, and even the Constitution
of Zimbabwe.
Chinamasa instead
says that economic, social and cultural rights should form the core
of the human rights agenda. Indeed, this is where we have seen the
greatest advances during the period of the Inclusive
Government (IG), brought about by stabilisation of the economy
and massive donor assistance to various Ministries in the rehabilitation
of services such as health, education, water and sanitation. It
is these same donors who he calls imperialists-colonizers. There
can also be no justification (not that he tries to offer one apart
from the false claim that it is sponsored by the West) for the denial
of civil and political rights to the population in this period of
political transition, which encompasses a constitution-making
process with a referendum and election to come. In this context,
his explicit rejection of the recommendations to impartially apply
the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly;
and ensure protection against enforced disappearances, torture and
political violence with impunity; are spine-chilling.
Far from reacting
in a balanced way to the contributions made by member states, he
instead launches a tirade against so-called Western countries, refusing
to acknowledge all recommendations that contain innuendos that Zimbabwe
is a violator of human rights. This rejection however includes recommendations
made by two fellow SADC states, Zambia and South Africa, on the
need to comply with the Paris
Principles ensuring independence for the Human Rights Commission
and investigate all credible allegations of political violence from
the 2008 Presidential elections, especially around torture and enforced
disappearances. The most sickening aspect of his remarks is how
he attempts to completely absolve Zimbabwe's negative human rights
record, by pinning the very crimes of the Government of Zimbabwe
on some ill-defined imperialist offspring who arrest, detain, mutilate
our people and plunder and pillage our resources. Anyone with even
a vague grasp of Zimbabwe's track record knows precisely who is
responsible for those acts.
The Minister
fails to consider the cries from Zimbabwe itself, so busy is he
with a wholesale rejection of 'the West' - equated to protection
of sovereignty and rejection of neo-colonialism. For example, in
one sentence he decries the excessive reference to POSA
and AIPPA,
saying that these laws were not the inventions of Zimbabwe - which
is true, they came almost intact from the previous Rhodesian regime
which used these specifically to oppress the majority - followed
immediately by the assertion that those Acts are here to stay. This
is despite the fact that public appeals to have POSA repealed, or
at the very least amended, have been sustained for over two years
during which time certain actors in Parliament
have deliberately stalled the Amendment
Bill. The latest culprit for stalling the passage of the Bill
has been Min. Chinamasa himself who spuriously tried to say that
it was a matter under consideration by the Principals in the Election
Roadmap, thus trying to divert the normal passage of long-awaited
legislative reform. In addition, he suggests that these pieces do
not violate any fundamental freedoms as long as their letter and
spirit is followed. This is precisely the contention that civics
have long raised, and presented full evidence for: that the police
fail to interpret the law correctly and instead use it specifically
to selectively curtail people's rights to association and assembly.
It is astoundingly petty to reject the 'omnibus recommendations'
made by some states, even though they have merit, on the basis of
who said them. Thus, Zimbabwe shows itself to be the architect of
its own pariahdom on the world stage by its petulant and uncooperative
stance.
The excuses
made for non-implementation of the Global
Political Agreement are grossly misdirected. He claims that
the hindrances to implementation are: sanctions and pirate radio
stations. After 32 months of monitoring adherence to the GPA, it
is actually desperate to make such an assertion. Perhaps however,
we can finally take this as a confession from ZANU-PF that they
are the reason behind the non-implementation of the GPA, as these
are the issues which they bleat about at every opportunity while
ignoring all other failed benchmarks, such as state-sponsored political
violence, the illegal appointment of key Government positions including
the Attorney-General, etc.
In the midst
of this we wonder, where is the MDC part of the Inclusive Government?
Where were their Government representatives at the UPR and what
about the Deputy-Minister of Justice? Will there be any response
from them as a party or do they condone the slander and lies as
the official Government position? If so, then they must accept it
when our outrage at the disenfranchisement of the population, by
the Inclusive Government, includes them.
It is now more
patently obvious than ever that those who spoke did not represent
or have the legal, democratic or best interests of the population
at heart. The concluding remarks instead express, exclusively, the
interests of a deranged and dictatorial coterie. When the Government
position regarding the UPR is such, it is quite clear that we cannot
expect our Government to protect our rights. This is therefore an
appeal to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights as
well as SADC to realise the implications for the people of Zimbabwe
and intervene when necessary to protect the rights that our own
Government seeks to trample.
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