THE ROUND UP
In the month of June, ZPP recorded a total of 206 violations, a
slight increase from 191 recorded in May. The human rights
violations are on an increase, and most of the abuses recorded
were associated with civil, political, and electoral rights. 61% of the
violations were of threats, harassment, and intimidation, 13% of
assault and 12% of discrimination. ZPP identified 2 096 victims of
human rights violations (62% male, 38% female, 0.3% male persons
with disability and 0.1% female PWDs). The general citizens
populated the highest percentage of victims, 92%, and Citizens
Coalition for Change (CCC) supporters followed with 7%. Zanu PF
party perpetrated the most violations (61%), followed by the
Forever Association Zimbabwe (FAZ) at 9% and Zimbabwe Republic
Police (ZRP) at 8%. Manicaland (33) and Harare (30) provinces
recorded the highest number violations, whilst Matabeleland North
(6) and South (7) and Bulawayo (9) had the lowest.
ELECTIONS ROUND UP
Women in elections
The number of women that will participate in the upcoming election
has decreased as compared to the 2018 elections. 14.4% of women
participated in the 2018 elections and the percentage has
decreased to 11% for the 2023 elections. In the National Assembly
70 out of 637 will be contesting and as of June 30, 2023 and
according to the gazette of the nominated candidates no woman
had their nomination accepted by the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission to run for presidency this year. This is a major setback
to achieve equal representation of women and men in national
political leadership positions as stated by Sustainable Goal 5 which
seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
While the Constitution speaks of equal representation between
men and women in all institutions it seems it will take a very long
time for this to be realised considering that the political parties do
not take the issue of the participation of women seriously. For the
House of Assembly Zanu PF put forward 187 men against 23
women while the CCC put forward 212 men according to those
successful after nomination against 20 women. For the local
authority only 15% of the candidates are women while 85 are men.
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