RECALLING the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 53/144 of 9 December 1998 which outlines the Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,
NOTING that the constitutional and electoral processes in Zimbabwe of 2002 in terms of which Robert Mugabe maintained power have exacerbated divisions and polarization whereby principles of good governance, the rule of law and respect for human rights have been violated,
STRESSING that the prime responsibility and duty to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Zimbabwe lie with the State,
EMPHASIZING the important role that individuals, civil society organizations and groups play in the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
NOTING with grave concern that serious violations of internationally recognized human rights standards are widespread in Zimbabwe characterised by the following;
1. Implementing legal provisions in a political and selective way in order to silence human rights defenders;
2. Forcing NGOs to register in terms of the Private Voluntary Organisations Act in order to limit freedom of association, creating possibilities for closure of independent NGOs for lack of registration and the arrest of their representatives.
3. The drafting, without consultation of independent and representative NGOs, of a new very restrictive law governing the work of NGO’s aiming at notably forbidding any foreign subsidies for Zimbabwean NGO’s.
4. The promulgation and selective use of security laws such as the Public Order and Security Act (adopted in January 2002), aiming at notably prohibiting any criticism of the Head of state and its government officials and suppressing freedoms of assembly, expression and movement/demonstration, under the imprecise pretext of maintaining public order.
5. The use of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (adopted in March 2002) to politically control and shut down the independent media and limit the rights of NGOs to collect information.
6. The adoption of directives forcing the NGOs working on food to use State’s organs for every distribution of food, thereby politicising food distribution in violation of international humanitarian law.
7. Significant increase in the attacks of human rights defenders in both the scale and the methods and forms of oppression which includes intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrests and detentions, false prosecution and even acts of torture against human rights defenders - be they NGOs members, lawyers, magistrates, journalist or trade unionists.
8. More specifically the following examples of attacks on human rights defenders were noted with concern; On May 10, 2003, 46 women, members of a human right NGO, were arbitrarily arrested and detained during a demonstration in Bulawayo on mother’s day; On October 8 and 9, 2003, 165 trade unionists of the Zimbabwe Confederation of Trade Unionists were arrested after a national demonstration aiming at protesting against the rise of taxes and violations of social rights; On October 22, 2003, in Harare, 400 human rights activists were subjected to violence, arrests and detentions then freed under bail for requesting for a constitutional change and the strengthening of the democracy during a peaceful demonstration ; On February 4, 2004, several hundreds of members of the National Constitutional Assembly, a forum of independent NGOs, were ill-treated by the police whilst they were demonstrating before the parliament calling also for a constitutional reform.116 persons were arrested and detained at the central police station, accused of having organised an illegal demonstration; During the year 2003 many lawyers were harassed and subjected to intimidation for representing other human rights defenders.
OBSERVING THAT these repressive legal provisions and their selective implementation constitute obvious violations of international and regional human rights instruments that bind Zimbabwe, such as the International Covenants on civil and political rights and on economic, social and cultural rights, the African Charter On Human And People’s Rights, and the 1998 United Nations’ Declaration on human rights defenders
The Congress demands
The Zimbabwean government
1. To immediately put an end to any kind of harassment and reprisals against human rights defenders and restore the independence of the judiciary to ensure that human rights defenders are able to pursue freely their activities, in conformity with international and regional instruments that bind Zimbabwe
2. To immediately engage impartial and exhaustive investigations on all cases of violence perpetrated against human right defenders in order to identify their authors, to prosecute them and judge them in conformity with law
3. To revise repressive legislation such as POSA and AIPPA to put it in conformity with international human rights standards
4. To give a positive answer to the request made by the Special representative of the United Nation Secretary General on human rights defenders in 2003, to visit Zimbabwe
The United Nations
5. To adopt, at the March 2004 session of the Human rights Commission, a resolution on Zimbabwe condemning human rights violations perpetrated by the regime, in particular those targeting human rights defenders
The Focal point on human rights defenders of the African Commission on human and people’s rights
6. To give particular attention to the situation of human rights defenders in Zimbabwe, and to initiate a resolution in that sense at the next session of the Commission in May 2004
7. To make the findings of the African Commission’s fact finding mission done in June 2002 public.