Recommendations and Conclusion
Zimbabwe Peace Project
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Zimbabwean online and offline political space is violent in nature. The majority of the
perpetrators of this violence online and offline are men while the victims are women. The
violence is gendered in nature in that it weaponises gendered narratives, and attacks women
on the basis of their gender. VAWP has ramifications on women participation in politics. Some
of the women who are victims of VAWP quit politics altogether, others lose elections, others
quit social media while others remain on social media via ghost accounts. VAWP undermines
the confidence that the electorate have in the female politicians, tarnishes their (and their
loved ones’) image and reputation, reduces their self-esteem, has negative psycho-social
effects and it acts as a disincentive for women who are aspiring to become politicians. There
have not been many prosecutions or lawsuits against perpetrators of VAWP in Zimbabwe.
Recommendations to the government of Zimbabwe
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All laws that inhibit 50-50 representation for men and women in Parliament, Local
Councils and other statutory governance bodies must be repealed and replaced by
laws that operationalise 50-50 representation.
The government must enact legislation that obliges political parties to have 50-50
representation for men and women in their governance structures. Political parties
which do not comply must be barred from participating in elections.
The government must operationalise all constitutional and legislative provisions
designed to end SGBV and VAWP and to achieve Gender Equality.
The government must increase budgetary support to institutions mandated to
combat VAWP. Local Council Budgets and the National Budget must ensure that 70
percent of the projects prioritise benefitting women.
The government must facilitate access to justice and healing by all the survivors of
VAWP, ensuring perpetrators of VAWP are brought to book. To enable access to
justice by the survivors of VAWP, the government must ensure that the
survivors/victims of VAWP have free legal representation.
The government must develop context specific, culturally sensitive content on
VAWP, disseminate it in local languages on all existing online, offline, and digital
information portals to ensure that survivors of VAWP have knowledge of the
existing remedies for VAWP and referral pathways for psycho-social support.
The Zimbabwe Gender Commission must collaborate with the Zimbabwe Media
Commission to design and implement anti-gender disinformation programing and
campaigns. The two institutions also need to research and generate knowledge on
the impact of VAWP online and offline.
Government must expand the scope of the Gender Observatory beyond elections
and make it a statutory body by passing an enabling legislation for its
operationalisation and establishment as a permanent structure
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