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L M
The
Fostering a culture
of human rights
13 July 2015
Harare municipal police and vendors clashed in central Harare last week as authorities sought to remove the traders from their trading stalls. 27 vendors were arrested
while dozens more lost their wares in the scuffle. Three venders were charged with assalting municipal police officers
Legal Monitor
The
Fostering a culture
of human rights
ZLHR
Chapter
Legislation
Priority
of the
Requiring
Area Constitution Amendment
Increasing
access
to civil,
social and
economic
justice
Chapter 4:
Declaration of
Rights
Refugees Act
[Chapter 4:03]
Section 80
- Rights of
women
Section 81
- Rights of
Children
Chapter 4: Declaration
of Rights
Disabled
Persons Act
[Chapter 17:01]
Section 83
- Rights of
persons with
disabilities
Section 68
Right to administrative justice
Administrative
Justice Act
[Chapter 8:17]
Section 85
Enforcement
of fundamental
human rights
and freedoms
State Liabilities
Act [Chapter
8:14]
Prescription Act
[Chapter 8:11]
StrengthChapter 8:
ening the
The Court
efficiency System
and effectiveness
of state institutions
(justice) in
delivering
on their
mandate
and accounting
to the
public
Supreme
Court Act
[Chapter 7:13]
High Court Act,
[Chapter 7:06]
Magistrates
Court Act
[Chapter 7:10]
Commentary
Refugees and particularly children refugees - are vulnerable to many
forms of abuse and rights violations. The government must take measures
to protect the rights of refugee children in accordance with the constitutional rights of the child.
Facilities and resources for disabled persons have generally been very
limited in Zimbabwe, restricting their participation in public affairs and
economic, political and social life. Strengthened legal provisions may assist to improve the level of participation and subsequently the quality of
the lives of this community, which has now received specific protection
under the new Constitution.
Administrative authorities continue to violate the Constitution by refusing to comply with the rules and tenets of natural and administrative justice, particularly in decisions that are taken in state institutions and by and
against state (and non-state) actors. While such action can be legally challenged after the fact, it is critical to prevent such abuse in the first place.
Where legal action is taken, decisions (and the reasons for such decisions)
must be furnished expeditiously.
Class actions have been notoriously difficult to institute and pursue in
Zimbabwe. This is primarily due to the prohibitive administrative barriers
and complex and costly procedures imposed by the law and the courts.
Such onerous requirements have made it impossible for those with limited
resources to proceed with such action.
Currently the prescription periods for claims against the state are
very short and have negatively affected the ability of victims of statesanctioned violations to claim against such actors and institutions. The
Constitution has addressed this, and the Act must now be aligned to
ensure this is respected.
The unavailability of court rules for the Constitutional Court continues
to cause uncertainty in terms of procedure, thereby limiting access to the
court and reinforcing uncertainty of a standard procedure implemented
equally for all litigants.
Legal Monitor
The
Justice Bhunu said the electoral body could not be barred from using voters
rolls compiled by the Registrar Generals Office before the adoption of the
new constitution, adding that there is no law that barred ZEC from doing so.
Legal Monitor
The
13 July 2015
Fostering a culture
of human rights
And these views were most ably expressed in some of her poems
including one of her most stellar ones, A Mysterious Marriage in
which she laments,
Independence Came
But Freedom was not there
An old woman saw Freedoms passing shadow
Walking through the crowd, Freedom to the gate
All the same, they celebrated for Independence
(From On the Road Again by Freedom Nyamubaya, 1986,
Zimbabwe Publishing House)
These sentiments that she expressed were however not left to her
writing alone. She was involved as far as she thought practically
possible with the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans
Association and the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform. She said she
got involved in order to at least ensure that her comrades from the
struggle days were not forgotten. And that her fear was that most of
the political leaders had forgotten those that were at the frontlines of
the struggle. After also taking a brief political role in the Mavambo/
Kusile/Dawn movement she confided in 2010 kubatana.net Inside/
Out Interview that.
I've decided to concentrate on things that I can achieve. Politics is
no longer about any ideologies, or policies, it's not about building
the country. I would like to be remembered as somebody who
contributed to the development of the youth, or the development of
Zimbabwe. Or even as someone who contributed to the literature
on the war.
Her assertions, to me at least, continue to ring true when one
examines the political parties that our country is saddled with.
She however had a keen interest in pursuing her own activism and
two weeks before her passing had gone on a training programme
to Switzerland under the auspices of the Zimbabwe Peace and
Security Trust (she was also a trustee of the same organization).
In her narration to me of the visit, she joked about how once they
were on an electric tram ride through one of the hills, a fellow
Zimbabwean delegate had said ominously, if this was in Zimbabwe
Freedom gone
source: takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com
By Stanley Kwenda
Stanley Kwenda