Zimbabwe Peace Project

September 2016
Human Rights Violations
MONTHLY MONITORING REPORT

State institutions as purveyors of violence

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2016_9 September Monthly Monitor Report

Monthly Monitoring Report

Executive Summary: Social and citizen movements continue to gather momentum although in the month under review their activities have been restricted by the ban on protests affecting Harare. The social movements and unions like #Tajamuka, #ThisFlag, #ThisGown, National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe (NAVUZ), Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (RTUZ) and have been recently joined by the National Electoral Reform Agenda (NERA), a coalition of 18 political parties. The groups, though conceived differently influenced by the challenges each one is faced with have galvanised a fractured Zimbabwean citizentry and revived the will to peacefully protest. The social movements continue to protest against political as well as economic problems weighing Zimbabweans down. The common factor among all these groups is the fact that incumbent President should admit failure as there is growing youth unemployment, a serious cash crisis, poor living conditions for most Zimbabweans deplorable working conditions for those still in employment and lack of electoral reforms as the 2018 elections are on the horizon. The ban revealed that police officers did not know their role in the face of protesting citizens. The police it seems thought their role was to stop at all costs any form of protest and yet the constitution in section 59 gives citizens the right to demonstrate and petition as long as it is peaceful. On the other hand the role of the police is to maintain law and order and protect both life and property. There has been a marked increase in violations from a low of 123 violations in March 2016 to 321 in August 2016 and 296 recorded in September. Conflict drivers during the month of September were incessant protests with the NERA protest being a highlight, other conflicts centered around discrimination in the distribution of food aid. The intensity of the violence experienced during this period can be gauged by the number of victims recorded. Between July and September 2015, 1230 victims were recorded and the figure has almost tripled in the same period this year. A total of 3383 victims were recorded between July and September 2016. An intriguing phenomenon has been the identity of the victims; traditionally victims of political violence were members or supporters of established political parties. However, there has been a marked increase in a group of victims identified as “unknown”, in September 2015 41,4% of the victims were identified as unknown and in September 2016 the figure has almost doubled to 81,9%. The increase in the number of unknown victims of violence is indicative of the rise in the number of protestors who do not belong to mainstream political parties but are part of a growing socio political movement in Zimbabwe. State sponsored violence is pervasive in Zimbabwe and the statistics recorded in September point to a shocking reality of how violence is perpetrated by state institutions. In September, the Zimbabwe Republic Police accounted for 46.7% of violence perpetrators followed by 7.3% from the Zimbabwe National Army and 1.8% from the Central Intelligence Organisation. Apart from state institutions, Zanu PF had the highest number of perpetrators of violence at 39.7%. This indicates a growing tendency by the ruling party to use violence in settling political scores, in August 2016 Zanu PF accounted for 42% of the perepetrators. Some protesters were detained and subjected to inhuman treatment by police after they defied the protest ban. On 17 September police and military officers went on rampage assaulting Glenview, Mabvuku/Tafara, Dzivarasekwa, Kuwadzana and Kambuzuma residents after a NERA demonstration. The uniformed forces attacked some of the victims while they were in their homes, shopping centers and beer halls. There has been growing concern about the targeting of those mobilising citizens for protests through abductions and torture is a trend that Zimbabweans fear and loathe. This largely contributed to the number of victims recorded in September; a total of 1320 victims and 967 perpetrators. In July and August the victims were 647 and 1416 respectively. The September protests leave September as the month with the seond highest number of victims over the last three months. The effects of the El Nino induced drought are being felt more by other Zimbabweans than others as discrimination and denial in the distribution of food and other aid grows on partisan lines. This flies in the face of what is stated to be government policy where all vulnerable groups are supposed to benefit. International standards are also clear that food should not be used to advance political objectives. The right to food is recorded as the most infringed upon with 25 cases, the second most disregarded human right is freedom of association which accounts for 24 cases, followed by freedom of expression recorded 18 times and 12 cases of breaching freedom of assembly. During the previous month the right to food, freedom of association, freedom of assembly and freedom of expression also topped the list of the most violated rights at 18, 26, 4 and18 cases, respectively. Of late another trend has emerged in September where victims are subjected to enforced disappearance and torture and then discovered after several hours with injuries sustained from torture. The freedom to demonstrate and petition continues to be breached. Citizens have also been subjected to wanton arrests at times being hauled out of their homes to answer for participating in protests or the mere suspicion of having a hand. Provincially Harare has the most cases of human rights violations where seven different rights were violated (freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, right to personal security, freedom form torture, property rights, freedom to demonstrate and petition, and the right to privacy). The high cases of violations in Harare can be attributed to the incessant protests witnessed in the capital city. Mashonaland West, Masvingo, Midlands and Mashonaland East also recorded high human rights violations. The noted provinces are hotbeds on inter and intra party conflicts. Bulawayo recorded the lowest as the violated rights listed are freedom of expression and the right to food. See Annex 2 for other facts and figures. There are fundamental rights directly affecting children that are violated during the course of September. These are reflected in 25 cases where the right to food is infringed upon and three where the right to shelter is violated. The Zimbabwean constitution prioritises children’s rights in section 19 (2), which says the state has undertaken to ensure that children have shelter and basic nutrition. The food violations and cases of unlawful evictions deny children some of their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

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2016_9 September MMR.pdf
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