Addressing journalists in the capital on Thursday, ZWLA Director, Emilia Muchawa said the association’s endorsement of the draft was apolitical and in the interest of Zimbabwean women.
“We take a bold apolitical stance, in the interest of Zimbabwean women and girls, and announces its support for the draft constitution.
“After a thorough analysis of the draft, we realize that 75 percent of the demands coming from women and identified as women’s minimum demands at the onset of the constitution-making process have been incorporated into the draft,” she said.
She added that, if endorsed, the draft would champion women’s rights by promoting gender equality, affirmative action and uphold gender sensitive laws.
Before endorsing the draft constitution, ZWLA engaged women from all over the country and came up with 14 points of what women wanted in the constitution.
“We have been engaging women in constitution-building for a long time.
We started doing an analysis of the current constitution highlighting the gaps and we came up with the 14 points of what women wanted in the constitution, after getting views from women from all parts of the country, and synthesizing the views into women’s demands,” she added.
Muchawa encouraged women to vote for the draft constitution, arguing that the current constitution gave room for the overt discrimination of women.
‘We have nothing to lose by lobbying for a draft that promises to at least address gender inequalities and rampant discrimination,” said Muchawa.
Meanwhile, the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe submitted 120 names of women’s rights activists from across the country to participate at the forthcoming conference.
Post published in: News