ZLHR Condemns Endemic Defiance of Court Orders

ZLHR Condemns Endemic Defiance of Court Orders

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ZIMBABWE Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is perturbed by the endemic defiance of court orders by the government and some state actors, which entrenches a culture of impunity in the country.

ZLHR has sadly noted a worrying and growing tendency in several cases in which the state and some state actors have wilfully defied complying with court orders granted by judicial officers in courts across the country. In these cases, they would have been ordered to pay judgment debts to victims of human rights violations, who would have instituted litigation processes to obtain redress.

Consequently, several human rights defenders continue to struggle to enforce orders for compensation to victims of human rights violations due to the refusal by the state and some state actors to pay judgment debts.

So deep-seated is the habit, that victims are resorting to instituting additional costly and time-consuming litigation such as applications of contempt of court proceedings against the state and state actors to force them to comply with court orders while in some cases, this has resulted in lengthy court processes, which has the effect of deterring would-be claimants from pursuing their matters against the state.

In some cases, human rights lawyers have on behalf of victims of human rights violations employed additional strategies such as challenging the constitutionality of provisions of the State Liabilities Act, which seeks to promote impunity in cases, where ordinary citizens are rendered powerless to execute court judgments that are in their favour in civil cases.

The provisions of section 5(2) of the State Liabilities Act, which protect state properties from being attached to satisfy unpaid compensation claims to people such as victims of state-sponsored human rights infringements by some state actors and agencies are unconstitutional as they offend fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

ZLHR is greatly concerned by the increased abuse and use of the impugned provisions of section 5 of the State Liabilities Act, which prevents the execution or attachment of property of the state to  compensate victims of human rights violations.

This provision of the State Liabilities Act which grants the state immunity against the execution of its properties by holders of judgment debts, extends an undue and unfair advantage to the state in litigation. This advantage is unfortunately not extended to other litigants and, as such, induces their inequitable treatment while infringing on the right to equality of all persons before the law and to equal protection and benefit of the law.

Moreover, the phenomenon of defiance of court orders severely undermines the judiciary and the justice delivery system and entrenches a culture of impunity and lawlessness in the country including weakening national institutions that are vital for the protection of human rights, the restoration of the rule of law and democracy in the country.

ZLHR reminds the government that it bears the primary responsibility to enforce the rule of law and to fight impunity and that in enforcing court orders, the executive would be complying with its mandate to ensure that citizens enjoy the right to the protection of the law, which right is entrenched in the Constitution and other regional and international instruments that the government has acceded to or signed and ratified.

Despite growing cases of impunity in Zimbabwe, ZLHR is encouraged that its anti-impunity litigation processes have played a critical role in providing access to justice to victims of human rights violations and continues to obtain numerous damages awards for victims and in so doing, enforcing the right to effective remedy.

As an organisation which is committed to fostering a culture of human rights and the unimpeded administration of justice, ZLHR calls upon the government, its agents, state and non-state actors, to respect court orders and the rule of law, to emphatically contain impunity levels, which have reached dangerous proportions and to stop undermining the judiciary and administration of justice.

ENDS

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
Kodzero/Amalungelo House
No. 103 Sam Nujoma Street, Harare, Zimbabwe
Phone: (+263 8677005347, +263 242 764085/705370/708118
Email: info@zlhr.org
www.zlhr.org.zw
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