Leading rights groups submit report on Zimbabwe crisis to Africa Commission

By Violet Gonda
25 May 2007

Pressure is mounting on the African Commission, which is currently sitting in Ghana, to take urgent steps against the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Five leading international human rights groups came together and issued a joint shadow report expressing concern and refuting a propaganda report that was submitted by the Mugabe regime to the Commission.

Despite denials by the Zimbabwe government, scores of opposition and civic activists have been under attack for several years now, but the last three months have seen an escalation of state sponsored violence, including abductions and killings. Since March the attacks have also spread to include lawyers, journalists and church leaders.

Kevin Laue from REDRESS, an international NGO working to obtain justice and reparation for torture survivors, said the shadow report (ZIMBABWE: Human Rights in Crisis) is to give the Africa Commission an alternative perspective, at a time when it is considering the Zimbabwe government’s State Party Report. The government document carefully ignores or denies the state sponsored violence and the collapse of the country

Laue said REDRESS has done a chapter on torture, Human Rights Watch on land reform and the Murambatsvina catastrophe which displaced more than 700 000 people, Amnesty International on questions of freedom of association and assembly, the Article 19 chapter deals with freedom of expression issues analyzing attacks on journalists, and the International Bar Association wrote a section analyzing rule of law issues and attacks on the legal profession.

Groups like REDRESS say they are becoming increasingly concerned about the welfare of victims of torture in Zimbabwe and human rights doctors have recently expressed concern over the condition of the 32 political detainees who have been in custody for two months. Many of the prisoners were abducted from their homes and tortured in police custody.

REDRESS’ Director Carla Ferstman said: “This blatant and public attack puts torture into the spotlight and cannot be ignored.” The group called on the African body to send a clear message that torture is unacceptable in all circumstances. The group said such is the widespread nature of torture in Zimbabwe that the survivors have little if any realistic prospect of obtaining reparations under the present regime. “There have been numerous reports of victims who have tried to report an abuse to the police, only to be detained and further abused by the police themselves,” Ferstman said.