Recommendations and Conclusion
Zimbabwe Peace Project
To stimulate judicial appetite for dealing with VAWP cases, the government must
train office bearers in the Judicial Service Commission on VAWP so that they
apply the knowledge in their interpretation of the law and in making rulings on
cases that relate to VAWP. They can also use the knowledge in updating existing
remedies that are available to survivors of VAWP. Judges who are trained on
VAWP can entertain lawsuits on VAWP more, they can make rulings ordering
compensation of survivors and reinstatement of office bearers forced to resign
because of VAWP.
The Judicial Service Commission must develop a Judges’ Guide on Adjudicating
Electoral Disputes from a Gender Perspective. It must develop a Training
Manual/Curriculum for Electoral Courts on VAWP. This would trigger the appetite
of the judges to prosecute perpetrators of VAWP and to pass deterrent sentences
against them. Similar training can also be extended to the Members of the
Republic Police so that they are gender sensitive in their law enforcement and so
that they speedily process complaints on VAWP.
The government must design, develop and implement programs aimed at
enhancing the technical capacity of ZEC to deal with 9 VAWP. Such programs may
include analysing the voter and candidate registration procedures, flagging out
barriers that these processes pose to women’s participation and propose ways of
breaking these barriers. ZEC must have extensive jurisdiction over political party
conduct, including enforcement of gender quota laws.
The government, through the Zimbabwe Media Commission, must work through
the media to increase the visibility of gender equality concerns. This entails
making the media a critical ally in all its forms as a powerful vehicle for
denouncing violence and transforming public perceptions of women as leaders
equally legitimate to men. The media must be capacitated to dismantle widely
held notions that VAWP is normal. The Zimbabwe Media Commission, in
collaboration with the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, must therefore train both
state and non-state media on gender sensitive reporting
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