The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has now given Zimbabwe 90 days to act on the decision, including launching an investigation into the torture that Shumba was subjected to in 2003. The Commission’s decision was made in May 2012, but it was only approved by the Executive Council of the African Union in January 2013, and the African Commission informed Shumba of its decision last week.
Shumba was arrested by the police and CIO officials in Zimbabwe in 2003, while attending to a client. During his detention he was kicked, beaten and severely tortured and ill-treated for several hours. He was threatened with death, electrocuted, burned with chemicals and suffered other serious abuses.
Following this torture he was then forced to flee to South Africa, where he is currently living and working as an advocate in the High Court. He filed the complaint against Zimbabwe with the African Commission in 2004.
In its decision, the African Commission said that Shumba had submitted “more than adequate evidence” to support his allegation of torture and ill-treatment, including being subjected to prolonged electric shocks in the mouth, genitals, fingers, toes and other parts of the body. The Commission said Zimbabwe failed to open an official investigation, ordering it to do so within 90 days and bring those responsible to justice.
Jeurgen Schurr, the legal representative for the international group REDRESS, which supported Shumba’s action before the Commission, said the case is “landmark.” He told SW Radio Africa that the case is “tremendously important,” because of the precedent it sets for the fight against impunity.
“It shows the Commission is a crucial forum for redress for citizens who cannot obtain justice in their own countries,” Schurr said.
The African Commission is the last human rights court Zimbabweans and other Southern African citizens can turn to when the legal system in their own countries fail to protect them, after the suspension of the regional Tribunal in 2010.
Meanwhile the Commission, in a related matter, also found that Zimbabwe was in violation of Articles 1 and 4 of the African Charter by failing to protect its citizens from extra judicial killings as well as affording effective redress to the bereaved families.
The Commission, in a decision also made in May 2012, recommended that the Government of Zimbabwe “undertake law reform to bring domestic laws on compensation in cases of wrongful killings into conformity with the African Charter and other international standards, especially in respect to effective and satisfactory compensation…. and to pay compensatory damages to the legal heirs and next of kin of the four deceased persons.”
This decision was filed before the Commission by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum over the wrongful deaths in the hands of state agencies, of Batanai Hadzizi, Never Chitsenga, Beaven Kazingachire and Lameck Chemvura. The four, who were killed on separate occasions between January and November 2001, were victims of extreme brutality by security agents. – SW Radio Africa
Post published in: News