The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights made this decision last year after it was filed by Shumba in 2004. But the decision was only finalised in January and communicated to the Zimbabwe government and Shumba in the past week. The court has now given Zimbabwe 90 days to act on the decision, including launching an investigation into the torture that Shumba was subjected to.
The lawyer 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, almost ten years later, he still lives and works as an advocate in the High Court. He told SW Radio Africa on Tuesday that the fact that his case took almost a decade to reach this point was “concerning.”
“It was really a long, long process fraught with a lot of disappointments, characterised by despair. I almost withdrew the case from the African Commission and I think it is not a good thing for our African jurisprudence to have a case drag on for so long,” Shumba explained.
He continued: “If you consider the fact that I am a lawyer and I have had to pester them (the court) at every opportunity at every moment I could get, try and juxtapose that to a situation where someone with no knowledge of the law ventures to approach the commission… It is really a disappointment. As many people have said, justice delayed is justice denied.”
He said the system at the Commission needs to be improved, warning that without key changes “it can only work to discourage prospective applicants or complaints before the commission.” He said that, as the highest judicial authority in Africa, the court needs to set a standard for the rule of law and fighting impunity.
But Shumba also welcomed the decision, calling it a progressive one that sets an important precedent in Africa. He said that in a specific Zimbabwean context, it also sets a vital precedent ahead of elections.
“It is fortuitous that the ruling has come while human rights defenders in Zimbabwe are being harassed, including Beatrice Mtetwa, Okay Machisa, Jestina Mukoko and others. The pronouncement made in this ruling from the African Union’s highest judicial body is that what the Zimbabwe government is doing is illegal in terms of African charter. And that is an important precedent,” Shumba said. – SW Radio Africa News
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