The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organization, Zimrights, are extremely concerned about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe which, in the context of the second round of the presidential election, is continuing to deteriorate.
The use of violence by state-sponsored agents and militias has resulted in over 80 deaths, thousands of wounded, and tens of thousands of displaced people. Since the first round of the presidential election, held on March 29, opposition members and human rights defenders have been subjected to threats, intimidation and acts of harassment, as well as arbitrary arrests and detentions, ill-treatments and torture.
Despite calls by African and international actors, the situation has been worsening over the last weeks. On 14 June, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested along with 11 members of his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Tsvangirai had previously been arrested several times. On 23 June, he took refuge at the Dutch embassy after pulling out of the race because of acts of violence committed against MDC supporters. MDC Secretary General, Tendai Biti, has been arrested in Harare soon after his arrival from South Africa. He know faces charges of high treason, publishing and communicating false statements prejudicial to the State, causing disaffection among the defence forces and insulting the President, offences that could carry the death penalty.
These developments follow raids on independent NGOs’ offices, including the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). Members of these and other organizations, including ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions), PTUZ (Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe), and WOZA/MOZA (Women Of Zimbabwe Arise/Men of Zimbabwe Arise), were harassed, arrested, or even assaulted and tortured in the last weeks. A few days before the second round of the election (which is to take place on June 27), local independent sources report human rights violations committed by the army, government-backed militias known as the "war veterans" and ZANU-PF supporters.
On June 23, the United Nations Security Council has condemned the "campaign of violence against the political opposition [and] the actions of the Government of Zimbabwe that have denied its political opponents the right to campaign freely." Furthermore, it has called "upon the Government of Zimbabwe to stop the violence, to cease political intimidation, to end the restrictions on the right of assembly and to release the political leaders who have been detained." Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, earlier said she was "shocked by the news that several more bodies of murdered political activists have been found in Zimbabwe [...], and strongly condemned the killings, as well as the continuing harassment of NGO workers, human rights defenders and other members of civil society."
Regarding this situation, we wish to call on you, as a member of the Human Rights Council, to fulfill your role in commitment to protecting and promoting human rights in Zimbabwe, derived from Article 3 to "address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations, and make recommendations thereon » and Article 5.f, to "contribute […] towards the prevention of human rights violations and respond promptly to human rights emergencies », in calling, without further delay, for a special session of the Human Rights Council. We thus urge you to support this initiative in order to :
– condemn the ongoing human rights violations in Zimbabwe and call for their immediate ending ;
– establish an international commission of inquiry into the human rights violations perpetrated during the electoral process which would include a focus on the fight against the impunity of the perpetrators ;
– urgently call for the organization of a free and fair election in Zimbabwe under international supervision.