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II. Recommendations

To the government of Zimbabwe

- In line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, take urgent measures to provide protection and assistance to the internally displaced persons (IDPs), including shelter, food, water, sanitation and medical services. Prioritize the needs of vulnerable groups such as women, children, elderly and chronically ill persons. Access to humanitarian assistance should not be made conditional upon residence in specifically designated areas, but should be made available on the basis of need.

- Allow national and international humanitarian agencies full and unimpeded access to assist and protect the internally displaced.

- Desist from compelling the IDPs to move to rural areas. Ensure that security forces and other officials do not engage in any activities that would result in the forcible displacement, resettlement, or relocation of IDPs. Ensure that any restrictions on the freedom of movement of IDPs are in full compliance with the Zimbabwean government’s obligations under international human rights law.

- Establish conditions and provide the means for those displaced to return voluntarily to their homes or places of habitual residence in conditions of safety and dignity, or to resettle voluntarily in another part of their country and facilitate their reintegration. Ensure participation of IDPs in the planning and management of their resettlement, relocation or return.

- Provide effective remedies to the victims of the evictions, including access to justice and appropriate forms of reparation and compensation.

- Make public the selection criteria for housing through Operation Garikai to ensure that it is nondiscriminatory and that the process is carried out with fairness, transparency, and accountability.

- Provide immediate housing and health care to evicted persons who suffer from tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and other communicable diseases. Provide immediate access to local health centers in their current place of residence for displaced persons in need of TB therapy and anti-retroviral treatment, discontinued by reason of their eviction. 

- Recognizing that the displacement prevents many parents or guardians from raising the money for school fees which in turn prevents children from attending school, temporarily waive school fees for all children affected by Operation Murambatsvina.

- Take urgent measures to prevent and halt cases of harassment and abuse of IDPs by the police or other state agents. Investigate any reports of such abuses and bring their perpetrators to justice.

To the African Union

- Urge the government of Zimbabwe to allow the Special Envoy of the African Union Commission, Tom Nyanduga, to return to Zimbabwe and fulfill his mandate and report to the African Union on the situation of internally displaced persons in Zimbabwe.

- Call on the government of Zimbabwe to permit full and unhindered access by national and international humanitarian agencies and human rights monitors to the victims of Operation Murambatsvina, including the internally displaced persons.

- Recommend and facilitate an independent observer mission to monitor the humanitarian operation in the aftermath of the evictions and ensure the protection of IDPs and other vulnerable groups.

To the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR)

Adopt a resolution on Zimbabwe at the 38th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). The resolution should:

- Strongly condemn the mass evictions and demolitions and urge the government of Zimbabwe to take immediate action to address the desperate plight of hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Operation Murambatsvina;

- Strongly condemn the obstruction of international humanitarian assistance for displaced persons by the Zimbabwean government.

- Call on the governmentto take urgent measures to provide assistance and protection to the internally displaced and to allow unimpeded international assistance to the displaced.

- Support the return to Zimbabwe of the Special Envoy of the African Union Commission and the Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, Tom Nyanduga, so that he can fulfill his mandate to undertake a fact-finding mission to investigate the situation of IDPs in Zimbabwe.

- Urge the government of Zimbabwe to cooperate with and assist the Special Rapporteur in the performance of his tasks and provide all necessary information for the fulfillment of his mandate.

- Call on the government of Zimbabwe to implement the recommendations contained in the 2002 ACHPR report of its fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe and the report of the U.N. Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues.

To the United Nations agencies operating in Zimbabwe

1. Take urgent measures to provide humanitarian assistance to the internally displaced as follows:

    - Immediately undertake a countrywide needs assessment including numbers, conditions and locations of the internally displaced; follow-up with periodic assessments to evaluate progress of the assistance program;

    - Immediately initiate countrywide registration of the internally displaced persons, either directly or with the help of implementing partners;

    - Start thorough monitoring of the situation either directly or through local NGOs and community-based organizations, including in the rural areas where the internally displaced have moved; increase field presence through regular visits to locations in urban areas where the internally displaced stay;

    - Take urgent measures to provide temporary shelter, food, health services, water, sanitation and other vital assistance to the internally displaced; ensure the delivery of services to those living outside of government-recognized settlements;

    - Consult and cooperate closely with local NGOs; take advantage of their data, possibilities for access and extensive networks especially where direct access is not possible; actively support their programs for the internally displaced.

2. Provide protection to the internally displaced. To this end:

    - Ensure the inclusion of protection issues in the needs assessment and planning, and the integration of human rights concerns into all components of the program to assist the internally displaced;

    - Formalize response to protection through the designation of a focal point on protection within the country team, tasked with bringing relevant U.N. and non-U.N. actors together to develop and implement a protection strategy for the internally displaced;

    - Regularly consult with protection-mandated agencies, specifically United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) and (United Nations Children’s Fund) UNICEF, to identify and address protection concerns;

    - Make timely and assertive interventions with the authorities to prevent and halt involuntary relocation, continued evictions and demolitions, police harassment and other abuses against the internally displaced;

    - Incorporate a legal assistance component into the programs to help local NGOs and the displaced seek remedies for unlawful evictions and other violations of their rights;

3. Engage in active and assertive advocacy with the authorities for the rights of the IDPs, and enlist the support of senior U.N. officials with relevant mandates. To this end:

    - Impress on the government its obligation to fully comply with human rights standards and policies on internally displaced persons, including the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement; place human rights at the center of the U.N. country team’s engagement with the government;

    - Actively protest the government’s deliberate obstruction of humanitarian programs, including through public representations;

    - Through timely and regular reporting, ensure that Senior UN officials and donors are kept informed of the humanitarian situation and encouraged to advocate in support of protection and assistance for the displaced.

To Senior U.N. Officials, including the Secretary-General of the U.N., the Emergency Relief Coordinator, the Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights

- Urgently impress on the government of Zimbabwe its responsibility to assist and protect the internally displaced and the unacceptability of obstructing efforts of the international community to help the population in need; urge the government to comply with recommendations of the U.N. Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues;

- Ensure that the U.N. agencies on the ground understand and diligently fulfill their responsibilities with respect to the protection of IDPs, as laid down in U.N. policy documents;

- The Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee should consider reinforcing the Zimbabwe country team with additional personnel with relevant expertise in IDP protection issues. The Emergency Relief Coordinator should encourage and support advocacy initiatives of the country team, and actively engage in negotiating access to the internally displaced;

- The High Commissioner for Human Rights should deploy a human rights advisor to the U.N. Resident Coordinator to help ensure that all the activities of the U.N. agencies in country are effectively coordinated to promote the human rights of IDPs;

- The Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons should seek a visit to Zimbabwe to raise awareness of and attention to the plight of the internally displaced, and work with the government and the U.N. to ensure the delivery of assistance and protection to the IDPs.

To donor governments

- Thoroughly monitor the implementation of assistance programs; ensure that the programs contain a realistic assessment of needs and a feasible strategy which takes existing challenges into account;

- Encourage the U.N. country team to develop the protection component of its programs and follow-up on its implementation;

- Ensure that programs which they fund are not used by Zimbabwean authorities to infringe upon the rights of the internally displaced, e.g. by manipulating food assistance to impel relocation to the rural areas;

- Urge the government of Zimbabwe to fully abide by its international obligations toward the internally displaced and to stop its obstruction of international assistance;

- Respond generously to U.N. appeals for Zimbabwe, in order to enable agencies responding to the crisis to provide adequate levels of food, shelter, and other humanitarian assistance to the internally displaced.


<<previous  |  index  |  next>>December 2005