The Zimbabwe Peace Project’ s monthly monitoring report for the month of June is now available. This edition focuses on the different waves of human rights violations happening in the country. Read on to get a full picture of the waves of human rights violations.
Executive Summary
In post-coup Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has continued to record wave after wave of human rights violations as the democratic space continues to narrow. Criticising government has easily become a reason for one to get arrested, harassed, detained, or denied access to government services. The line between government and the ruling party has been violated, continues to fade and in all this, the ordinary citizen is the most affected.
Just this month, ZPP recorded a wave of evictions and demolitions resulting from the government’s policy inconsistences, corruption, and interference in local authorities. This happened as service delivery continued to decline, and despite pronouncements by government that it had embarked on an emergency rehabilitation of urban roads, the current efforts have remained hardly noticeable as the majority of roads and other public infrastructure remain in a state of decay.
There was also a wave of repression marked by arrests and detention of civil and political rights activists. This month, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) dominated the list of human rights violators at over 44 percent, followed by ZANU PF and the Municipal Police at just over 21 percent each. Municipal police and the ZRP enforced the demolition of houses and informal trading spaces and the ZRP was responsible for enforcing the lockdown imposed by government in response to the rise in cases of COVID-19.
ZANU PF, which is geared up for the 2023 elections and is in the process of setting up local structures countrywide, is doing so with little respect for the people’s freedom of association. In all this, general citizens make 99 percent of the victims of the human rights violations recorded this month. Food and other aid continue to be used as a tool for political coercion and this month, ZPP recorded 31 cases of discrimination of people, during aid distribution with Manicaland, Masvingo and Midlands stopping the list at 22 percent each. In the month of June 2021, government imposed a lockdown to contain the rising cases of COVID-19 and this happened amid a wave of different human rights violations largely perpetrated by government agents, and the ruling party.
Read the full report here (6MB PDF)
Source: Zimbabwe Peace Project
