Human rights in Zimbabwe
Encyclopedia
There are widespread reports of systematic and escalating violations of human rights in Zimbabwe under the Mugabe administration
and his party, ZANU-PF
.
According to human rights
organizations such as Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch
the government of Zimbabwe
violates the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement
and residence, freedom of assembly
and the protection of the law
. There are assaults on the media
, the political opposition, civil society
activists, and human rights defenders.
Opposition gatherings are frequently the subject of brutal attacks by the police
force, such as the crackdown on a March 11, 2007 Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) rally. In the events, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai
and 49 other opposition activists were arrested and severely beaten by the police. Edward Chikombo
, a journalist who sent images of the beatings to foreign media, was abducted and murdered a few days later. After his release, Morgan Tsvangirai told the BBC
that he suffered head injuries and blows to the arms, knees and back, and that he lost a significant amount of blood. The police action was strongly condemned by the UN Secretary-General
, Ban Ki-moon
, the European Union
and the United States
. While noting that the activists had suffered injuries, but not mentioning the cause of them, the Zimbabwean government-controlled daily newspaper The Herald
claimed the police had intervened after demonstrators "ran amok looting shops, destroying property, mugging civilians, and assaulting police officers and innocent members of the public". The newspaper also argued that the opposition had been "wilfully violating the ban on political rallies".
, death threats, kidnapping
s and unlawful arrests and detentions.
In 1999, three Americans - John Dixon, Gary Blanchard and Joseph Pettijohn - claimed to have been tortured after their arrest. The trial judge accepted their evidence of torture and gave them lenient sentences after their conviction for weapons offences.
In the same year, Robert Mugabe condemned judges at Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court who asked him to comment on the illegal arrest and torture, by state security services, of two journalists, Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto.
The law enforcement agencies are a major source of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. According to Human Rights Watch
there have been a growing number of cases in which police have assaulted and tortured opposition supporters and civil society
activists. One notable case was the arrest and subsequent beatings of a group of trade union
activists, including the president and secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
, at Matapi police station, following peaceful protests on September 13, 2006. The unionists were initially denied medical and juridical assistance.
Another similar case was the arrest of student activist
leader Promise Mkwanazi on May 29, 2006. Mkwanazi was detained at a police station in Bindura
for five days without charge. During that time he was repeatedly stripped, shackled and beaten with batons by policemen, who accused him of trying to overthrow the government.
From 2001 to September 2006 the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
has recorded over 1200 cases of human rights violations by the law enforcement agencies, including 363 cases of torture, 516 cases of assault, 58 cases of death threats, 399 cases of unlawful arrest and 451 cases of unlawful detention. Many of these incidents include multiple victims. The organization finds that the law enforcement agencies are encouraged to perpetrate abuses by statements made by high-ranking members of the ruling party ZANU-PF.
The United States Department of State
reported in a Public Announcement dated July 12, 2007 that the situation in Zimbabwe is continuing to deteriorate as public protest against Mugabe and the ZANU-PF increases. Recent government price fixing on all local consumer goods has led to major shortages of basic necessities, leading to violence between desperate citizens and government forces seeking to enforce the restrictions and quell disruptions. The government has continued to reiterate its mandate to eliminate any dissent or opposition to its policies "by any means necessary", including lethal force. It has backed up this statement with random and indiscriminate acts of state-sponsored violence from various security forces on anyone perceived to be an opponent; these attacks often occur without provocation or warning as a form of state terrorism
.
The Mugabe regime has just detained prominent human rights activist Jestina Mukoko. Zimbabwe authorities should free Jestina Mukoko instead of tossing patently ludicrous charges at her. Her case underlines our grave concerns for the whereabouts of the dozens of other rights activists and MDC supporters who remain ‘disappeared.
The ploy of detaining and charging opponents on trumped up charges is not new. Mugabe first did this in 1983 when he put 10 ZAPU members of the minority Matabele on trial for allegedly plotting to kill him and for attempting to stage a coup. The case was that of State v Samson Nhari and others. The charges arose out of a ludicrously stage-managed attempted coup. The only incrminating evidence tended by the prosecutor were 'confessions" forced out of the accused persons after being held without access to legal representation just like Jestina Mukoko is being held. The intention at that time was to provide bogus justification for the genocide being perpetrated on the Matebele people (Ndbele tribe)by his infamous Fifth Brigade in what has become known as "gukurahundi".
A man named Maki Oholoba was held hostage and videod being decapatated, this clip is no longer available because it has been used in court.
. They are responsible for many of acts of politically-motivated violence and are frequently under the influence of government-issued narcotics.
, a program of mass forced eviction
s and demolition of homes and informal businesses in poor urban area
s. According to eyewitnesses some people were beaten by the police and in the turmoil several people allegedly lost their life. Examining the result of the operation, Anna Tibaijuka
, the UN Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, reported that some 700 000 people had lost their homes, their livelihoods or both, and that a further 2.4 million people had been affected in varying degrees, stating that the operation "was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering, and, in repeated cases, with disregard to several provisions of national and international legal frameworks." The report concluded that the operation violated several key human rights, including the right to life, property and freedom of movement.
is severely restricted by law. The legal framework is further stretched in practice, with law enforcement closely monitoring opposition demonstrations
and public gatherings. There are many reports of the arrest and subsequent beating of demonstrators. According to the Human Rights Watch report "You Will Be Thoroughly Beaten": The Brutal Suppression of Dissent in Zimbabwe, laws such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Miscellaneous Offences Act (MOA) are used to violently disrupt peaceful demonstrations and justify the arrest of civil society activists. In some cases, the activists are held for more than the legally allowed limit, often without charge.
In its 2006 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House
finds that Zimbabwe's already very poor freedom of expression
and freedom of the press
has deteriorated still further. The 2002 Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) requires journalist
s and media companies to register with the government-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC) and gives the government powers to deny people to work as journalists. An amendment enacted in 2005 introduced prison sentences of up to two years for journalists working without accreditation. Oppositional and independent newspaper
s have been ordered to close by the authorities, and journalists are intimidated, arrested, and prosecuted, with the support of laws criminalizing the publication of "inaccurate" information. Foreign journalists are regularly denied visas, and local correspondent
s for foreign publications have been refused accreditation and threatened with deportation
.
The state controls all broadcast media
as well as major dailies such as The Chronicle
and The Herald
. The coverage is dominated by favorable portrayals of Robert Mugabe and the ZANU-PF party and attacks on government critics. According to Freedom House, the government also monitors e-mail
content.
According to the U.S. State Department
, a local NGO
has quoted State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa
as stating the authorities would "not relent in their determination to hound into extinction the country's few remaining alternative sources of information."
While some Africa
n election observers
deemed the 2005 parliamentary election reflective of the will of the people, the general consensus is that these and prior elections in Zimbabwe have not been free and fair, with widespread electoral fraud
. Candidates and supporters of the opposition party, MDC, have been restricted from campaigning openly in some areas, and have faced harassment, violence and intimidation. Government food stocks have been offered to voters in exchange for their votes. The media coverage has been strongly biased in favour of ZANU-PF. On election day, many potential voters, particularly in constituencies dominated by the opposition, were turned away. The main reason for this was that they tried to vote in the wrong constituency due to inadequately publicized redistricting
. Election observers also noted voter intimidation at polling stations. In one incident, police took no action when a ZANU-PF candidate threatened to shoot MDC polling agents. Vote reporting discrepancies heavily favoring the ruling party suggest that tolls were manipulated.
are still in place. Domestic violence
against women is a serious problem. While labor legislation
prohibits sexual harassment
in the workplace, such harassment is common and generally not prosecuted. While the law recognizes women’s right to property, inheritance
and divorce
, many women lack awareness of their rights.
President Mugabe has criticized homosexuals
, attributing Africa's ills to them. Common law prevents homosexual
men, and to a lesser extent homosexual women, from fully expressing their sexual orientation. In some cases it also criminalizes the display of affection between men. The criminal code has been amended to define sodomy
to include "any act involving physical contact between males that would be regarded by a reasonable person to be an indecent act."
and presidential elections
were held. The Opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai
, won both the parliamentary election and the first round of the presidential, sparking a run-off in a latter. The three month campaign between the first and second rounds of the presidential election was marred by increasing violence targeted at MDC supporters. The MDC stated that at least 86 of its supporters -including Gibson Nyandoro
and Tonderai Ndira
- had been murdered, and that 200,000 others had been forced out of their homes by pro-government militia. The election itself was reportedly marked by mass intimidation, with citizens being forced to vote, and required to show their ballot to government party representatives before placing it in the ballot box.
; methods include severe beatings, sexual assault and dog mauling.
and the United States
are guilty of similar or worse transgressions, for example in the Iraq War.
In a speech at the inaugural session of the UN Human Rights Council
in Geneva
on June 21, 2006 Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa
, assured that Zimbabwe would "respect the human rights of all its people". However, he accused "developed countries" of funding local NGOs with the goal of "undermining our sovereignty, creating and sustaining local opposition groups that have no local support base, and promoting disaffection and hostility among the local population against their popularly elected government".
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
and his party, ZANU-PF
Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front
The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front has been the ruling party in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, led by Robert Mugabe, first as Prime Minister with the party simply known as ZANU, and then as President from 1988 after taking over ZAPU and retaining the name ZANU-PF...
.
According to human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
organizations such as Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
the government of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
violates the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement
Freedom of movement
Freedom of movement, mobility rights or the right to travel is a human right concept that the constitutions of numerous states respect...
and residence, freedom of assembly
Freedom of assembly
Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests...
and the protection of the law
Rule of law
The rule of law, sometimes called supremacy of law, is a legal maxim that says that governmental decisions should be made by applying known principles or laws with minimal discretion in their application...
. There are assaults on the media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
, the political opposition, civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
activists, and human rights defenders.
Opposition gatherings are frequently the subject of brutal attacks by the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
force, such as the crackdown on a March 11, 2007 Movement for Democratic Change
Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai
The Movement for Democratic Change Zimbabwe is a political party and the largest party in the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe. It is the main formation formed from the split of the original Movement for Democratic Change in 2005.-Foundation:...
(MDC) rally. In the events, party leader Morgan Tsvangirai
Morgan Tsvangirai
Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. He is the President of the Movement for Democratic Change - Tsvangirai and a key figure in the opposition to President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe on 11 February 2009...
and 49 other opposition activists were arrested and severely beaten by the police. Edward Chikombo
Edward Chikombo
Edward Chikombo was a Zimbabwean journalist, who, until 2002, worked as a cameraman for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation...
, a journalist who sent images of the beatings to foreign media, was abducted and murdered a few days later. After his release, Morgan Tsvangirai told the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that he suffered head injuries and blows to the arms, knees and back, and that he lost a significant amount of blood. The police action was strongly condemned by the UN Secretary-General
United Nations Secretary-General
The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat of the United Nations, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....
, Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
, the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. While noting that the activists had suffered injuries, but not mentioning the cause of them, the Zimbabwean government-controlled daily newspaper The Herald
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
The Herald is a government owned daily newspaper published in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.-Origins:The newspaper's origins date back to the 19th century. Its forerunner was launched on June 27 1891 by W E Fairbridge for the Argus group of South Africa...
claimed the police had intervened after demonstrators "ran amok looting shops, destroying property, mugging civilians, and assaulting police officers and innocent members of the public". The newspaper also argued that the opposition had been "wilfully violating the ban on political rallies".
Police repression
There is a widespread consensus among human rights organizations that systematic violations of the right of personal freedom and integrity are frequent in Zimbabwe, especially towards suspected members of the political opposition. The violations are perpetrated by government supporters as well as law enforcement agencies, and include assaults, tortureTorture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
, death threats, kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
s and unlawful arrests and detentions.
In 1999, three Americans - John Dixon, Gary Blanchard and Joseph Pettijohn - claimed to have been tortured after their arrest. The trial judge accepted their evidence of torture and gave them lenient sentences after their conviction for weapons offences.
In the same year, Robert Mugabe condemned judges at Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court who asked him to comment on the illegal arrest and torture, by state security services, of two journalists, Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto.
The law enforcement agencies are a major source of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. According to Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
there have been a growing number of cases in which police have assaulted and tortured opposition supporters and civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
activists. One notable case was the arrest and subsequent beatings of a group of trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
activists, including the president and secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is the dominant central trade union federation in Zimbabwe. The general secretary of ZCTU is Wellington Chibebe and the president is Lovemore Matombo....
, at Matapi police station, following peaceful protests on September 13, 2006. The unionists were initially denied medical and juridical assistance.
Another similar case was the arrest of student activist
Student activism
Student activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding...
leader Promise Mkwanazi on May 29, 2006. Mkwanazi was detained at a police station in Bindura
Bindura
Bindura is a town in the province of Mashonaland Central, Zimbabwe. It is located in the Mazowe Valley about 88 km north-east of Harare. According to the 1982 Population Census, the town had a population of 18,243. This rose to 21,167 in the 1992 census. It is the administrative capital of the...
for five days without charge. During that time he was repeatedly stripped, shackled and beaten with batons by policemen, who accused him of trying to overthrow the government.
From 2001 to September 2006 the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM-Summary:The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum also known as “The Forum” is a Non Governmental Organisation based in Zimbabwe with an International Liaison Office in London, England. It was founded by nine human rights organisations at the time of the 1998 food riots to...
has recorded over 1200 cases of human rights violations by the law enforcement agencies, including 363 cases of torture, 516 cases of assault, 58 cases of death threats, 399 cases of unlawful arrest and 451 cases of unlawful detention. Many of these incidents include multiple victims. The organization finds that the law enforcement agencies are encouraged to perpetrate abuses by statements made by high-ranking members of the ruling party ZANU-PF.
The United States Department of State
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
reported in a Public Announcement dated July 12, 2007 that the situation in Zimbabwe is continuing to deteriorate as public protest against Mugabe and the ZANU-PF increases. Recent government price fixing on all local consumer goods has led to major shortages of basic necessities, leading to violence between desperate citizens and government forces seeking to enforce the restrictions and quell disruptions. The government has continued to reiterate its mandate to eliminate any dissent or opposition to its policies "by any means necessary", including lethal force. It has backed up this statement with random and indiscriminate acts of state-sponsored violence from various security forces on anyone perceived to be an opponent; these attacks often occur without provocation or warning as a form of state terrorism
State terrorism
State terrorism may refer to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against a foreign state or people. It can also refer to acts of violence by a state against its own people.-Definition:...
.
The Mugabe regime has just detained prominent human rights activist Jestina Mukoko. Zimbabwe authorities should free Jestina Mukoko instead of tossing patently ludicrous charges at her. Her case underlines our grave concerns for the whereabouts of the dozens of other rights activists and MDC supporters who remain ‘disappeared.
The ploy of detaining and charging opponents on trumped up charges is not new. Mugabe first did this in 1983 when he put 10 ZAPU members of the minority Matabele on trial for allegedly plotting to kill him and for attempting to stage a coup. The case was that of State v Samson Nhari and others. The charges arose out of a ludicrously stage-managed attempted coup. The only incrminating evidence tended by the prosecutor were 'confessions" forced out of the accused persons after being held without access to legal representation just like Jestina Mukoko is being held. The intention at that time was to provide bogus justification for the genocide being perpetrated on the Matebele people (Ndbele tribe)by his infamous Fifth Brigade in what has become known as "gukurahundi".
A man named Maki Oholoba was held hostage and videod being decapatated, this clip is no longer available because it has been used in court.
Child soldiers
The ZANU-PF trains and sponsors a National Youth Service, known colloquially as the "Green Bombers." The U.S. Department of State describes the Youth Service as a group of undisciplined child-soldiers used by the ruling government to suppress political dissent through overt acts of state terrorismState terrorism
State terrorism may refer to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against a foreign state or people. It can also refer to acts of violence by a state against its own people.-Definition:...
. They are responsible for many of acts of politically-motivated violence and are frequently under the influence of government-issued narcotics.
Operation Murambatsvina
In May 2005 the government embarked on Operation MurambatsvinaOperation Murambatsvina
Operation Murambatsvina , also officially known as Operation Restore Order, is a large-scale Zimbabwean government campaign to forcibly clear slum areas across the country...
, a program of mass forced eviction
Eviction
How you doing???? Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction, eviction may also be known as unlawful detainer, summary possession, summary dispossess, forcible detainer, ejectment, and repossession, among other terms...
s and demolition of homes and informal businesses in poor urban area
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
s. According to eyewitnesses some people were beaten by the police and in the turmoil several people allegedly lost their life. Examining the result of the operation, Anna Tibaijuka
Anna Tibaijuka
Dr. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka is a former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme...
, the UN Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, reported that some 700 000 people had lost their homes, their livelihoods or both, and that a further 2.4 million people had been affected in varying degrees, stating that the operation "was carried out in an indiscriminate and unjustified manner, with indifference to human suffering, and, in repeated cases, with disregard to several provisions of national and international legal frameworks." The report concluded that the operation violated several key human rights, including the right to life, property and freedom of movement.
Restricted civil liberties
In Zimbabwe the freedom of assemblyFreedom of assembly
Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests...
is severely restricted by law. The legal framework is further stretched in practice, with law enforcement closely monitoring opposition demonstrations
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
and public gatherings. There are many reports of the arrest and subsequent beating of demonstrators. According to the Human Rights Watch report "You Will Be Thoroughly Beaten": The Brutal Suppression of Dissent in Zimbabwe, laws such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Miscellaneous Offences Act (MOA) are used to violently disrupt peaceful demonstrations and justify the arrest of civil society activists. In some cases, the activists are held for more than the legally allowed limit, often without charge.
In its 2006 Freedom in the World report, Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
finds that Zimbabwe's already very poor freedom of expression
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
and freedom of the press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
has deteriorated still further. The 2002 Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) requires journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
s and media companies to register with the government-controlled Media and Information Commission (MIC) and gives the government powers to deny people to work as journalists. An amendment enacted in 2005 introduced prison sentences of up to two years for journalists working without accreditation. Oppositional and independent newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s have been ordered to close by the authorities, and journalists are intimidated, arrested, and prosecuted, with the support of laws criminalizing the publication of "inaccurate" information. Foreign journalists are regularly denied visas, and local correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...
s for foreign publications have been refused accreditation and threatened with deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
.
The state controls all broadcast media
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
as well as major dailies such as The Chronicle
The Chronicle (Zimbabwe)
The Chronicle is a popular daily newspaper in Zimbabwe. It is published in Bulawayo and mostly reports on news in the Matebeleland region in the southern part of the country. It is state-owned and therefore usually only publishes news that supports the government and its policies...
and The Herald
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
The Herald is a government owned daily newspaper published in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.-Origins:The newspaper's origins date back to the 19th century. Its forerunner was launched on June 27 1891 by W E Fairbridge for the Argus group of South Africa...
. The coverage is dominated by favorable portrayals of Robert Mugabe and the ZANU-PF party and attacks on government critics. According to Freedom House, the government also monitors e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
content.
According to the U.S. State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
, a local NGO
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
has quoted State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa
Didymus Mutasa
Didymus Noel Edwin Mutasa is a Zimbabwean politician, currently serving as the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and as the Secretary for Administration of ZANU-PF.-Family background:...
as stating the authorities would "not relent in their determination to hound into extinction the country's few remaining alternative sources of information."
While some Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n election observers
Election monitoring
Election monitoring is the observation of an election by one or more independent parties, typically from another country or a non-governmental organization , primarily to assess the conduct of an election process on the basis of national legislation and international standards. There are national...
deemed the 2005 parliamentary election reflective of the will of the people, the general consensus is that these and prior elections in Zimbabwe have not been free and fair, with widespread electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
. Candidates and supporters of the opposition party, MDC, have been restricted from campaigning openly in some areas, and have faced harassment, violence and intimidation. Government food stocks have been offered to voters in exchange for their votes. The media coverage has been strongly biased in favour of ZANU-PF. On election day, many potential voters, particularly in constituencies dominated by the opposition, were turned away. The main reason for this was that they tried to vote in the wrong constituency due to inadequately publicized redistricting
Redistricting
Redistricting is the process of drawing United States electoral district boundaries, often in response to population changes determined by the results of the decennial census. In 36 states, the state legislature has primary responsibility for creating a redistricting plan, in many cases subject to...
. Election observers also noted voter intimidation at polling stations. In one incident, police took no action when a ZANU-PF candidate threatened to shoot MDC polling agents. Vote reporting discrepancies heavily favoring the ruling party suggest that tolls were manipulated.
Discrimination
Women are disadvantaged in Zimbabwe, with economic dependency and social norms preventing them from combating sex discrimination. Despite legal prohibitions, customs such as forced marriageForced marriage
Forced marriage is a term used to describe a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married without his or her consent or against his or her will...
are still in place. Domestic violence
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
against women is a serious problem. While labor legislation
Labour and employment law
Labour law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees...
prohibits sexual harassment
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
in the workplace, such harassment is common and generally not prosecuted. While the law recognizes women’s right to property, inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
and divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, many women lack awareness of their rights.
President Mugabe has criticized homosexuals
Gay bashing
Gay bashing and gay bullying is verbal or physical abuse against a person who is perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender . Such abuse is used also to bully heterosexual persons and persons of non-specific or unknown sexual orientation.A "bashing" may be a specific incident, and one...
, attributing Africa's ills to them. Common law prevents homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
men, and to a lesser extent homosexual women, from fully expressing their sexual orientation. In some cases it also criminalizes the display of affection between men. The criminal code has been amended to define sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
to include "any act involving physical contact between males that would be regarded by a reasonable person to be an indecent act."
Escalating violence during the 2008 national elections
In 2008, parliamentaryZimbabwean parliamentary election, 2008
A parliamentary election was held in Zimbabwe on March 29, 2008 to elect members to both the House of Assembly and the Senate of the Zimbabwean parliament...
and presidential elections
Zimbabwean presidential election, 2008
The Republic of Zimbabwe held a presidential election along with a parliamentary election on 29 March 2008. The three major candidates were incumbent President Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front , Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change , and...
were held. The Opposition Movement for Democratic Change
Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai
The Movement for Democratic Change Zimbabwe is a political party and the largest party in the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe. It is the main formation formed from the split of the original Movement for Democratic Change in 2005.-Foundation:...
(MDC), led by Morgan Tsvangirai
Morgan Tsvangirai
Morgan Richard Tsvangirai is the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. He is the President of the Movement for Democratic Change - Tsvangirai and a key figure in the opposition to President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe on 11 February 2009...
, won both the parliamentary election and the first round of the presidential, sparking a run-off in a latter. The three month campaign between the first and second rounds of the presidential election was marred by increasing violence targeted at MDC supporters. The MDC stated that at least 86 of its supporters -including Gibson Nyandoro
Gibson Nyandoro
Gibson Nyandoro was a Zimbabwean war veteran and political dissident who died in military custody in Zimbabwe in May 2008....
and Tonderai Ndira
Tonderai Ndira
Tonderai Ndira was a Zimbabwean political dissident murdered in May 2008.Ndira lived in the township of Mabvuku and Tafara, east of the capital, Harare, and was a "prominent activist" member of the Movement for Democratic Change...
- had been murdered, and that 200,000 others had been forced out of their homes by pro-government militia. The election itself was reportedly marked by mass intimidation, with citizens being forced to vote, and required to show their ballot to government party representatives before placing it in the ballot box.
Torture
Zimbabwe's security forces have a torture camp in the Marange diamond fieldsMarange diamond fields
The Marange diamond fields are an area of widespread small-scale diamond production in Chiadzwa, Mutare West, Zimbabwe. 'The hugely prolific Chiadzwa fields are regarded as the world's biggest diamond find in more than a century'...
; methods include severe beatings, sexual assault and dog mauling.
Government response
The government of Zimbabwe has generally responded to accusations of human rights violations from Western countries by counter-accusals of colonial attitudes and hypocrisy, claiming that countries such as the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
are guilty of similar or worse transgressions, for example in the Iraq War.
In a speech at the inaugural session of the UN Human Rights Council
United Nations Human Rights Council
The United Nations Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations System. The UNHRC is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights , and is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly...
in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
on June 21, 2006 Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa
Patrick Chinamasa
Patrick Antony Chinamasa is a Zimbabwean politician, currently serving as the Minister of Justice.-Career:A leading member of the ruling ZANU-PF party, Chinamasa became first deputy Agriculture Minister, and then Attorney General of Zimbabwe; he also holds the role of Leader of the Zimbabwean...
, assured that Zimbabwe would "respect the human rights of all its people". However, he accused "developed countries" of funding local NGOs with the goal of "undermining our sovereignty, creating and sustaining local opposition groups that have no local support base, and promoting disaffection and hostility among the local population against their popularly elected government".
See also
- Human trafficking in ZimbabweHuman trafficking in ZimbabweZimbabwe is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation...
- LGBT rights in Zimbabwe
External links
- Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
- Zimbabwe Country Report on Human Rights Practices - 2008 from the United States Department of StateUnited States Department of StateThe United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
- World Report 2007: Zimbabwe from Human Rights WatchHuman Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
- Zimbabwe from Amnesty InternationalAmnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
- Zimbabwe from Amnesty International USAAmnesty International USAAmnesty International USA is one of many country sections that make up Amnesty International worldwide.Amnesty International is an organization of more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in over 150 countries, with complete independence from government, corporate or national...
with ten years of reports - Zimbabwe: Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights (2008) from the International Trade Union ConfederationInternational Trade Union ConfederationThe International Trade Union Confederation is the world's largest trade union federation. It was formed on November 1, 2006 out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the World Confederation of Labour...
- Zimbabwe: 2008 Country Report from Freedom HouseFreedom HouseFreedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...