Established in 2009, the ZHRC has yet to start work in earnest due to low funding and lack of capacity.
Prof Reginald Austin, the commission’s founding chairman, quit last year citing a surfeit of operational challenges, including lack of staff, office space and staff, the absence of a political will and doubts about ZHRC’s independence.
Austin said the commission had “no budget, no accommodation, no mobility, no staff, and no implementing act or corporate legal status”. Zanu (PF) is likely to keep this vital constitutional body in such a hopeless state to further its political interests, says Thabani Nyoni of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, a civil society advocacy grouping.
After Austin’s departure, Jacob Mudenda took over. Mudenda, a staunch Zanu (PF) loyalist and now Speaker of the House of Assembly, neither put together a secretariat nor followed-up on the issues Austin cited as cause of his departure.
“It is difficult to assess the work of a human rights commission that has not given a framework of how it is going to do its work,” Nyoni said. “The commitment of Zanu (PF) to the observance of human rights is very questionable. For them, the issue of human rights is not a priority and this is worsened by the fact that most of the perpetrators are from Zanu (PF).”
Michael Mabwe, the spokesman for National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations said civil society must push the government to support the operations of various commissions. The view was shared by Okay Machisa, the ZimRights Director. He said that ZHRC has done nothing since its inception.
“You cannot work and produce meaningful results when you are not funded.
This is an institution which should be well fuelled from all angles but they have not been capacitated to produce meaningful results,” said Machisa.
Despite its mandate, resource constraints have rendered the ZHRC moribund.
The state must support the constitutional commission so that it can regain the people’s confidence. “If we do not have that, we will continue to have perpetrators of human rights abuses walking Scot-free,” said Machisa.
“Government has to invest in funding these commissions,” added Abel Chikomo, the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.
“Our expectations are that the government does not subvert these constitutional commissions. We expect the government to make sure that it empowers the human rights commission.”
Post published in: News
Hhhmmmm… I really wonder what is ZANU-PF’s definition of “human rights”. Seriously, think about it. Do they not realize that facts show them to be the party of violence and brutality, or do they know it, and simply feel justified in their actions? I truly wish i could understand it, but I just can’t wrap my mind around such a mentality as theirs. Anyone got any ideas?
OK, in all fairness, such uncivilized characteristics have existed at one time or another all around the world, in every corner. None of those can be justified, when justice was scorned and trampled upon by various groups. And not one of those can be justified because of the other.
So, even though ZANU-PF isn’t the first to revert from being a modern, civilized, reasonable society to become brute animals with few redeeming social values, they are in the here and now. They can be studied, clinical analysis applied, and perhaps we can then understand how such a digression of mental state can occur in mankind, God’s premier creation.