He told The Zimbabwean that government was pre-occupied with sourcing finances to bankroll the forthcoming elections, while nothing was being done to address the human rights abuses in the country.
The situation has been exacerbated by the ineffectiveness of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, which is suffering from a critical shortage of financial resources.
Marava said government had not adequately informed people of their rights as enshrined in the new constitution.
“The watchdog for human rights, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, has no cash at all and as we go towards elections, we were at least expecting it to have established itself at the grassroots level”.
“However, the Commission has only managed to establish itself in Bulawayo and Harare and that is a dangerous position given the fact that we are heading for watershed elections,” said Marava.
Last month ZHRC Chairperson, Jacob Mudenda, told the Parliamentary Thematic Committee on Human Rights that his Commission was broke and as a result was failing to implement its duties.
Marava bemoaned the fact that funding for the next elections has taken precedence over the need to address the plight of prisoners, most of whom are living under inhumane conditions.
“The conditions for prisoners have not improved and people tend to think about elections forgetting issues that need to be attended to.
Human rights for prisoners have not been taken seriously and the government has got to do something about these people,” he said.
Post published in: News