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IX. Zimbabwe’s International Human Rights Obligations

Since the March 29 general elections, the government of Zimbabwe has been responsible for numerous and widespread violations of international human rights law.  These include torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, arbitrary arrests and detention, and extrajudicial executions. In addition to protections provided under its Constitution,122 Zimbabwe is party to international human rights treaties, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights123 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),124 that prohibit such practices.

Governments have a duty to investigate and prosecute serious violations of physical integrity under international law. The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors the compliance of state parties to the ICCPR, has stated that governments not only have a duty to protect their citizens from such violations, but also to investigate violations when they occur and to bring the perpetrators to justice.125 According to the committee, when investigations uncoverviolations of human rights:

States Parties must ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. As with failure to investigate, failure to bring to justice perpetrators of such violations could in and of itself give rise to a separate breach of the Covenant. These obligations arise notably in respect of those violations recognized as criminal under either domestic or international law, such as torture and similar cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (article 7), summary and arbitrary [and] killing (article 6) … Indeed, the problem of impunity for these violations, a matter of sustained concern by the Committee, may well be an important contributing element in the recurrence of the violations126

International human rights law also enshrines the right to an effective remedy.127 A victim’s right to an effective remedy not only obligates the state to prevent, investigate and punish serious human rights violations, but also provide reparations. Among various reparations mechanisms, states should restore the right violated and provide compensation for damages.128

With regard to those who have been internally displaced by the violence, under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement the government of Zimbabwe has a “primary duty and responsibility to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons within its jurisdiction.”129




122 Chapter 3, the Bill of Rights, Constitution of Zimbabwe 1979.

123 African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted June 27, 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, entered into force October 21, 1986, ratified by Zimbabwe on May 30, 1986.  

124 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), entered into force March 23, 1976, acceded to by Zimbabwe on August 13, 1991.

125 U.N. Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 31 on Article 2 of the Covenant: The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/74/CRP.4/Rev.6 (2004), para 15.

126 Ibid., para. 18.

127 ICCPR, art. 2(3).

128 According to the Human Rights Committee, the ICCPR “requires that States Parties make reparation to individuals whose Covenant rights have been violated. Without reparation to individuals whose Covenant rights have been violated, the obligation to provide an effective remedy, which is central to the efficacy of [enforcing the ICCPR] is not discharged. … [T]he Covenant generally entails appropriate compensation.” Human Rights Committee, General Comment 31, para. 16. Compensation covers material losses, such as medical expenses and the loss of earnings, as well as economically assessable moral damage, such as pain and suffering. See Reparations Principles, principle 20.

129 The U.N. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, U.N. Document E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2; November 11, 1998. The Guiding Principles provide an authoritative normative framework for the protection of IDPs. Although not legally binding, the Guiding Principles are a firm reinstatement of existing international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international refugee law relating to the internally displaced. They draw heavily on existing standards and provide additional guidance and explanation where there are gaps. They are intended to provide practical guidance to governments, other competent authorities, the U.N. and other governmental agencies and NGOs in their work with IDPs.