|
Public Interest Litigation |
PDF
|
| Print |
|
E-mail
|
The ZLHR constitution provides that one of the ways and means of achieving organisational objectives is to “initiate [litigation], encourage and support prospective litigators in cases which involve the protection, promotion, deepening and broadening of the human rights provisions of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.”
The general objectives of public interest litigation can be summarised as follows:
- Increasing respect for the law
- Restoring confidence in the law and the justice delivery system
- Redress and compensation for victims and survivors
- Monitoring human rights violations and trends
- Documentation of human rights violations (the victims, the violation and the offender)
- Fighting lawlessness
- Strengthening the Constitution
- Fighting against impunity which is fueling lawlessness and the breakdown of the rule of law
- Introducing personal accountability to State actors like policeman, war veterans, militias, soldiers, intelligence officers and other public officials
- Introducing institutional and collective accountability to police, army, State organs and Ministries
- Pursuing human rights violators or representative state organs to justice
Creating a basis for international litigation or lobbying or advocacy by exhausting domestic remedies
The expected outcomes of public interest litigation in general can be summarised as follows:
- Restoration of and respect for the rule of law
- Restoration of public confidence in the justice delivery system
- Restoration of professionalism in, and depoliticisation of, the police force and other state organs
- Accountability in the public sector
- Improvement of the human rights situation in Zimbabwe
Some of the sub programmes under the public interest litigation are:
Litigation to protect and enforce fundamental freedoms, universal human rights and constitutionally guaranteed rights
ZLHR will engage, through its members, in public interest litigation where constitutional rights and guarantees have been contravened or are at risk, and where the human rights provisions of the Constitution of Zimbabwe can be protected, promoted, deepened and broadened. ZLHR will also challenge existing and proposed legislation where it is felt that such legislation is contrary to the Constitution and to the principles of democracy.
Anti Impunity Drive
ZLHR will engage in extensive litigation through its members to fight impunity, lawlessness and bring accountability to the state or state actors. The litigation will center around suing the state or state actors for such common practices as arbitrary arrests and detentions, summary or extra judicial executions, enforced disappearances and torture, inter alia.
Selective Justice Related Cases
ZLHR will continue to monitor and litigate in certain policing districts where the practice of selective application of the law is rife. The Law and Order section of the police force has been identified as having involved itself extensively in selective application of justice primarily based on political or perceptions of political affiliations. Generally this section of the entire police force in Zimbabwe seems to operate as an extension or a wing of a political party. ZLHR will therefore pursue a number of public interest cases in certain policing districts centering on the activities and cases involving lack of professionalism on the part of the police and other law enforcement agents whose names always reappear in testimonies of victims of violations.
Citizenship related litigation
Through repressive and unconstitutional legislation, the government has forced thousands of Zimbabwean to become stateless. has denied citizenship to many thousands of Zimbabweans, and continues to do so, on the basis of a potentiality, no matter how remote, of the citizen being entitled to a foreign citizenship. There is a lot of residual work for ZLHR to do in this area to try and remedy the anomalies and ensure that the government is reminded of its obligations to guarantee that no one is arbitrarily deprived of citizenship. International litigation around citizenship seems inevitable in 2005.
Litigation for indigents
ZLHR will continue to litigate in special cases for indigent clients as part of its social responsibility to facilitate general access to justice for all.
General Note
The strength in ZLHR programming in public interest litigation is that, it is done by ZLHR members and secretariat, who are all experts in litigation and have a right of appearance in all the courts of Zimbabwe. The ZLHR members and secretariat carry the integrity of the legal profession each time they are involved in human rights litigation. The lawyers are also geographically spread throughout Zimbabwe and this gives ZLHR capacity to quickly react in cases of reported violations, no matter how remote the area in which they occur.
|
OUR PROGRAMMES 
