ZEF takes cases to UN, AU

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PRETORIA – The Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, a vocal non-governmental organisation based in South Africa advocating for the rights of Zimbabwean in exiles is going

to take group court cases to the African Union and the United Nations on behalf of Zimbabwean women who have been sexually abused, especially during Operation Murambatsvina.

In an interview with The Zimbabwean at a recent workshop on Gender, Women’s rights and Human rights the Executive Director of ZEF, Gabriel Shumba, said there had been an alarming rise in the number of women who had been abused while fleeing Zimbabwe.

“Some of them were raped while in Zimbabwe and some of them were abused by South African security agents on their way to South Africa,” said Shumba.

The project of litigation on human rights in Zimbabwe undertaken by ZEF aims at advancing the protection and promotion of human rights in the country by making

available evidence of human right violations in the country.

Shumba added that many Zimbabwe women were molested when they tried to obtain legal papers at Home Affairs department at Marabastad in Tshwane [Pretoria].

“Most of them spent several nights sleeping outside the queues and are vulnerable to any abuse, while others are accompanied by small children. The women endure worse than men,” he said.

The UN’s “call of duty” gives the Security Council power to intervene in states with serious crises such as Sudan’s Dafur region and Zimbabwe.

“The United Nations Security Council can now intervene to facilitate free and fair elections and avert human crisis. There is already clear evidence of humanitarian crisis after United Nations special envoys reports on Operation Murambatsvina. The regional bodies such as Southern Africa for Community Development and Africa Union are ineffective as they continue fawning on Mugabe despite his atrocities,” said Shumba.