Annual induction courses/workshops for Board Members

The ZLHR board is elected annually at the AGM. The board, which is referred to in the ZLHR constitution as the Coordinating Committee, was up to this year primarily the driving force behind the activities of ZLHR as there was no full time secretariat. Now that this secretariat has been established at ZLHR, the board and the secretariat benefit from being coached on the transformation to ensure that the board, in its governance role, facilitates efficient management without losing control of the orgainisation. The board and management induction courses are held after every AGM when a new board is elected into office. This process helps in monitoring, control and evaluation.

Bi-annual training of ZLHR members and strategic NGOs on use of
international instruments and systems in the promotion and protection of human rights (Feb/March and August/Sept)

This training is meant to reinforce the organisation's international litigation programme. It also creates capacity and expertise on the part of ZLHR membership and provides suitable alternative options for litigation and advice to clients in human rights cases where there is suspicion that local remedies may be unavailable or inaccessible.

Training of Trainers/Facilitation courses in human rights training
Since ZLHR has been involved over the years in public education on human rights, it is important to formally equip and update the trainers with the skills necessary to provide training of a consistently high quality.

Annual Strategic Planning Workshop
Given the volatile situation in Zimbabwe, it is important, after every three-year funding cycle, that members be given an opportunity to refocus, and to assess whether the organisation is still relevant to the environment in which it is operating and, if so, whether it needs to be aware of threats/opportunities/weaknesses/strengths that are relevant to the choice of programmes to engage in.

Board and Staff retreat once a year.

It is proposed to have this type of retreat to build team spirit, evaluate performance and express thanks to everyone for hard work over the year.

Internship options
This programme is designed to complement the international litigation project. International lawyers and students with experience or expertise in international litigation will be considered for internship as volunteers with ZLHR. During their internships they will work with local partners (members of ZLHR) to build a case of human rights violations for submission either to the United Nations or the African Commission. The local partners will then be able to pursue (coached at all times by the international experts) the cases with the relevant human rights commissions thereby gaining international exposure and experience. This process will achieve the same objectives as those stated in the litigation projects. In addition, the project will also offer lawyers opportunities that ordinarily are not available to them. Human rights jurisprudence will also benefit from this cross pollination of ideas.

Further studies for staff.
ZLHR has also introduced staff training as a way of creating institutional expertise both in terms of local and international litigation requirements. This training in human rights law, social development and NGO management ensures expertise in all relevant aspects of NGOs from management to programming. In particular the training of project lawyers in international human rights law allows ZLHR to adequately respond to the needs of society by way of domestic and/or international litigation, and by providing technical assistance to other NGO partners when called upon to do so. In a normal environment this type of expertise will be available to government organs responsible for administration of justice as well as other policy organs of government to ensure that human rights are mainstreamed in government policy. ZLHR is therefore preparing for such a leadership role in the near future.