Introduction
Since inception in 2000, the Zimbabwe Peace Project has been
monitoring and recording cases of human rights violations throughout
the country with a view to building peace and promoting the peaceful
resolution of disputes and conflict. As part of the monitoring exercise,
in 2016, ZPP came up with a particular initiative to try and detect the
early warning signs of political violence with a view to coming up with
early intervention measures. Proactive in its outlook, the initiative
involved identifying a list of potential indicators of political violence to
look out for during the monitoring exercise. Once identified and
recorded, the indicators would then be analysed and, depending on the
findings, appropriate intervention measures would be fashioned. This
exercise has been going on since 2016.
This report looks at the human rights violations recorded in the
first three months of 2017 in order to: first, identify the general nature,
context and characteristics of the violations; and second, to decipher
what that means in view of the impending general election, which will
reportedly be held in July this year. The idea is to identify the nature of
the violations, understand their underlying causes, and then try to
identify the appropriate intervention measures. Closer attention will be
given to the potential for electoral violence in view of the impending
election and how the violence could be averted.
Analysis
Into the New Year
The year 2018 started on a rather unpromising note. Political bickering
within Zanu PF, in particular the persecution of the so-called G40 cabal
after the ouster of President Robert Mugabe, continued to shape the
course of political events into the New Year. The impending election on
the other hand also played a part in shaping political events, especially
the high incidents of intimidation and harassment recorded in the first
month going forward.
The year thus started with a 24% increase in recorded incidents
of human rights violations. 245 violations were recorded in January, up
from 186 cases the previous December.
Notably, 169 cases of
harassment and intimidation and 57 discrimination cases were recorded
2