ZIMBABWE Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) continues to stand in solidarity with victims and survivors of enforced disappearances in their struggle for justice as the world commemorates International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances and reiterates its call for an end to impunity for perpetrators of this heinous crime.
30 August is the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances and serves as an opportunity to reflect on the fate and lives of all victims and survivors of enforced disappearances across the globe and to raise awareness that enforced disappearance is a crime. It is also a day to honour victims and survivors of enforced disappearances and serves as a reminder of the ongoing plight of victims, survivors and their families, and should prompt state and non-state actors to renew and increase support to help combat enforced disappearances.
Enforced disappearance is a gross violation of human rights and a crime against humanity, especially when it is committed as part of an organised plan by governing authorities. In most cases, victims of enforced disappearances are often deprived of their fundamental human rights by their captors. Such rights include the right to human dignity, the right to personal liberty and security of the person, the right to health, the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the right to life, in circumstances where the victims are murdered by their captors.
International law obliges Zimbabwe and all states to protect and uphold everyone’s fundamental rights and take all measures to prevent the occurrence of enforced disappearances.
Regionally, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to which Zimbabwe is a state party, also prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, while section 53 of the Constitution provides that no one may be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Despite these treaty-based commitments, ZLHR is gravely worried that the government has not enacted legislation that makes enforced disappearances a standalone criminal offence. Further, the government has not ratified the United Nations (UN) Convention for the Protection of All Persons Against Enforced Disappearances, which outrightly prohibits the practice of enforced disappearances.
Instead, it is disheartening that the government has rejected recommendations made by other UN member states during the UN Human Rights Council-led Universal Periodic Review Mechanism sessions, a peer-to-peer review, encouraging Zimbabwe to ratify and domesticate the UN Convention for the
Protection of All Persons Against Enforced Disappearances. Once accepted, domesticated and fully implemented, this recommendation will be vital and will assist in efforts to eradicate the pervasive practice of enforced disappearances.
Zimbabwe has a long history of human rights violations and a worrying pattern of enforced disappearances, and on many occasions, victims are abducted by suspected state agents and held incommunicado. Some of the victims, including Itai Dzamara, Patrick Nabanyama and Paul Chizuze, have not been accounted for to this day, and their fate remains uncertain. Historical instances of enforced disappearances that occurred in the 1980s in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces remain unresolved, while victims and survivors are yet to access effective remedies or interact with meaningful transitional justice processes.
The consequences for Zimbabwe have been the emergence of a prevalent climate of impunity, which has resulted in the heinous crime of abductions and enforced disappearances continuing to be committed, and this leaves devastating psychological, economic and social impacts on survivors and family members as well as on society.
On International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, ZLHR calls upon the government to;
- Fully embrace the recommendations to ratify and domesticate the United Nations Convention for the Protection of all Persons Against Enforced Disappearances.
- Criminalise enforced disappearances.
- Urgently eradicate impunity for perpetrators of enforced disappearances and ensure full accountability of all perpetrators and guarantee redress and rehabilitation to victims, survivors and families of this odious crime.
- Account for and ascertain the whereabouts of all the missing victims of enforced disappearances, such as Dzamara, Nabanyana and Paul Chizuze.
- Institute processes for victims, survivors and families of those disappeared to access effective remedies and other necessary support.
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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