The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), urged the government to intervene at the ‘judicial’ violation of the rights of Florence Ndlovu, the ZimRights Regional Coordinator for Matabeleland province.
Last month, Ndlovu was charged for “communicating false statements prejudicial to the State” and released on bail after almost a week in detention. Her trial is scheduled to start on Thursday.
Police arbitrarily arrested Ndlovu while she was coming out of a workshop in Tsholotsho after police disrupted the event. She was detained for three days without any access to her lawyers.
While in prison she was tortured and kept in overcrowded cells.
“The Observatory strongly condemns the ongoing judicial harassment against her, and calls upon the Zimbabwean authorities to put an end to such acts of intimidation and harassment as they merely seem to aim at sanctioning her human rights activities,” reads the petition.
It is addressed to President Mugabe, the co-Ministers of Home Affairs, Kembo Mohadi and Theresa Makone, Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Attorney General Johannes Tomana.
“We appeal that you conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels,” the petition reads.
Ndlovu is one of many human rights activists to bear the brunt of violations by Mugabe, his supporters and partisan state agents.
Post published in: Politics