MIHR is a registered non-profit making human rights organisation based in Bulawayo and exists to enhance human rights promotion and protection through nonviolent civic engagement and social accountability. MIHR was formed in 2015 and registered in 2019. It is guided by the values of non-violence, justice, equity, active participation, accountability and transparency, amongst others.
Vision
MIHR envisions a just world where all people enjoy all their rights and freedoms all the time.
Region
MIHR has active community programme interventions in Zimbabwe’s three provinces of Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South.
Beneficiaries
Vulnerable communities and groups including poor women, girls and youths, slum dwellers, peri-urban communities, pensioners and the elderly.
Key Thematic Focus
Human Rights, Environment and Climate Change resilience, Water, Sustainable Development, Education.
Current and Past Interventions
Human Rights Awareness and Capacity Strengthening
The organisation invests time in demystifying what human rights are and ensuring that local communities fully understand human rights and know how to claim and protect their rights and well as hold responsible authorities accountable on human rights concerns. The organization also assists affected communities to form nonviolent social movements to defend and promote their rights and freedoms. The Bulawayo Water Action (BUWA) Campaign, the Movement for Environmental Monitoring and Accountability (MEMA), and the Bulawayo Female Waste Pickers Association are some of the platforms the organization has spearheaded as local human rights social movements. Key human rights the organization focuses on include:
- Right to food and water
- Environmental rights
- Right to know
- Right to housing
- Access to civil documentation
- Freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment
- Rights of women, youths, the elderly and children
Social Justice
The organization has been empowering slum dwellers, pensioners and development-induced evictions and displacements victims to be able to claim their rights and demand social justice. The organization has also been empowering female waste pickers to defend their rights and transform the waste picking enterprise to be gender sensitive and human rights just. The organization’s social justice work also entails pragmatic strengthening of communities’ capacities to adapt and recover from adverse climate change effects.
Policy Monitoring and Interventions
The organization also works to monitor and influence human rights just policies at local and national levels. The organization has so far been working to influence the formulation of the Zimbabwe National EWaste Policy; the Relocations and Compensation Policy; the amendment of the Traditional Leaders Act; the review of EIA policies, among others.
Contact Details:
Email: mihroffice@gmail.com
Cellphone/whatsapp: +263771730018 / 774943334
Twitter: @MatHumanRights
Facebook @matabelelandinstituteforhumanrights
Website https://www.matabelelandinstituteforhumanrights.org
Source: Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights
