ZimRights issued a statement condemning the assassination of and urging the government of Eswatini to allow for an independent and impartial investigation into the assassination of Thulani Maseko. Maseko was a renowned lawyer and human rights activist from Eswatini who was assassinated on 21 January 2023. See our statement here.

For the Month of January, we feature the ZimRights 30-year anniversary commemorations which were held in November 2023. The commemorations were marked through several activities held at ZimRights House in Harare. These include a human rights photo exhibition that was curated by award-winning photojournalist Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, the laying of the foundation stone for the ZimRights Village, and a Movement Builders Masterclass on learning from 30 years of grassroots organising. Read the full story here

You can also watch the keynote address delivered by Dr David Kaulem here

The election season is upon us. So is the PVO Bill that will potentially paralyse many organisations that have been supporting active citizenship in democratic processes. The usual workshops on elections will probably not happen at the same scale as many NGOs scale down on their civic engagement work. We believe this work does not have to stop. Democracy is too important to be left to the whims and dictates of politicians. It will collapse and die. As such we are sharing our new resource for those citizens who agree with us that everyone must participate in democratic processes. Our special resource is titled, “Elections and Democracy in Zimbabwe: Citizen Guide to Building a Culture of Effective Participation in Election and Democratic Processes”.  Download and read the guide here

Zimbabwe heads for the 2023 general elections, which are likely to be held by August 2023. Zimbabwe continues to experience fragile peace as seen through recent manifestations of political violence. This situation is aptly captured in our 2021 State of Peace Report. One of the key findings was that elections presented a nightmare rather than an opportunity and community members are expecting bloodshed ahead of the 2023 election. Read the full report here

The 10x10 Voter Mobilisation Campaign is running under the Elections and Democracy Zone, which is one of ZimRights’ 8 Action Zones. The campaign seeks to increase the participation of women, men, youth, and persons with disabilities in key electoral processes. Under the campaign, ZimRights produced a jingle mobilising people to participate in the upcoming 2023 elections by registering to vote and by voting. Listen to the jingle here

The ZimRights local Peace Action Committee in Cowdray Park has exposed how more than 100 families are at risk of contracting typhoid amid worsening service delivery in Bulawayo’ Cowdray Park Suburb. The Peace Action Committee has tried to engage the Bulawayo City Council on a number of service delivery issues to no avail. Listen to a member of the Peace Action Committee here.

For Jacob Chiwome, the joy of reuniting with his livestock was a perfect gift for the New Year. Jacob is one of the 18 villagers assisted by ZimRights’ Human Rights Monitoring Action Zone in Gokwe. The Villagers were victims of Chief Nemangwe’ s abuse of traditional authority. ZimRights members reported that the Chief had forcibly taken away the villagers’ livestock after passing default judgments based on various trumped-up charges against the villagers. He went on to sell the livestock for his own benefit. This was in violation of property rights as carried in Section 71 of the Constitution. “We could not just watch and pretend nothing wrong was happening,” said a local human rights monitor, “we saw a human rights violation and decided to act by reporting, first to the police, who were taking their time and to ZimRights, who took up the matter” Expressing his joy Chiwome expressed his happiness, “I thought my life had ended, these cows were my investment, but now I believe that justice is for everyone.” Listen to an audio from one of the monitors regarding the situation.

Zimbabwe has a long history of political violence around major elections. Listen to the ZimRights National Chairperson speaking about this challenge. Click hear to listen to the audio

ZimRights’ National Director, Dzikamai Bere, attended the Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Summit in Lusaka, Zambia, which was being held under the theme, A Journey to Sustainability: Protecting Civic Space Through Strengthening Institutions for and Networks of Environmental and Human Rights Defenders in Southern Africa. He had the opportunity to moderate the award ceremony where he reflected on why we must celebrate human rights defenders. We feature these reflections in a blog article. To read the blog click here 

If you care about the work we do, you can now donate to our work through our website. Visit www.zimrights.org.zw/donate/ and make your donation from any part of the world.