International Bar Association senior programmes lawyer, Marie Olivier says the panel, which includes nationals from South Africa, Botswana, USA and United Kingdom, will prepare a report into the Mugabe government's intimidation of judges and lawyers and the state of the rule of law.
The visit comes amid events of the past few weeks that have put the rule of law in Zimbabwe in the gravest peril.
"The circumstances which have been disclosed show, in our view, conduct committed or encouraged by government ministers which puts the very fabric of democracy at risk," said one member of the panel.
The panel of seven international judges and lawyers will spend a week in the southern African country and were trying to get an audience with President Robert Mugabe, the Prime Minister, the attorney general, justice minister and a number of organisations critical of Zimbabwe's political climate.
They also wanted to meet the Chief Justice. The delegation includes Connor Foley, a rapporteur and humanitarian aid worker, Unity Dow, a former High Court judge in Botswana, Advocate Pansy Tlakula, chief electoral officer in South Africa, Professor Bartram Brown, a professor for human rights and international law at Kent College in Chicago, USA; Daniel Leader, a barrister based in the United Kingdom and Professor Christina Murray, a professor of constitutional human rights at Cape Town University. The visit comes amid relentless pressure on the rule of law from certain elements in the government and threats of violence.
"The pressing need for social justice does not justify the assaults on the rule of law committed and permitted by the government. Some of the people who are supposed to protect the judiciary and stamp out intimidation are the very ones who are fanning the flames of a culture of threat and intimidation of the judiciary. There are serious breaches of the independence of the judiciary," said a member of the panel, who declined to be named saying an official position would be made in the final report.
The delegates had already found a "prevalent perception" within Zimbabwe that members of Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party were less likely to be prosecuted for political violence. The official said the government's attitude "creates a culture of lawlessness which cannot be appropriate in a democratic society". – Chief Reporter
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