Citing Zimbabwe as one of the violators of this human right, Amnesty spoke out against forced evictions which it said were endemic in Africa and every year left hundreds of thousands of people homeless and vulnerable to a host of other human rights abuses.
Amnesty cited Hopley settlement in Zimbabwe as an example of violations rights to adequate housing. In Zimbabwe, the lives of pregnant women and their babies in Hopley settlement, on the outskirts of Harare, are in danger because of the government’s failure to ensure access to adequate housing and essential services including health care. There is currently no maternal and newborn health care available within the community. The majority of Hopleys 5 000 residents are survivors of the governments 2005 programme of mass forced evictions known as Operation Murambatsvina.
The UN estimates that 700 000 people lost their homes, their livelihoods, or both during Operation Murambatsvina. Most residents at Hopley were settled there under the governments rehousing programme, known as Operation Garikai, after their homes were destroyed during Operation Murambatsvina.
As a remedy for the mass forced evictions, Operation Garikai was from the outset a wholly inadequate response. A few lucky victims were allocated unfinished houses while thousands more were offered bare plots of unserviced land. The vast majority of survivors have received no assistance and were left to fend for themselves. Amnesty International is calling on the Zimbabwean government to immediately put in place all necessary measures to ensure pregnant women and girls at Hopley settlement, and other Operation Garakai settlements, have access to maternal and newborn care, Amnesty said.
Post published in: Politics