The Functions of Selected Human Rights Institutions and Related Role-Players in the Protection of Human Rights in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Various human rights violations on the part of the ordinary people and human rights defenders have been reported in Zimbabwe since the late 1980s to date. It is widely acknowledged that such violations were mostly perpetrated by the government through its different organs for political and other related reasons.  Human rights violations were also easily committed against ordinary people and human rights defenders because there was no Constitution that adequately protected such people's fundamental human rights (including their civil and political rights and their socio-economic rights) in Zimbabwe.  Given this background, the article discusses the protection of human rights in Zimbabwe, in light of the Zimbabwe Constitution Amendment 20 of 2013 (Zimbabwe Constitution 2013). This is done in order to investigate whether the promotion, protection, enforcement and the respect for human rights in Zimbabwe has now improved. To this end, the functions of selected national human rights institutions and other related role-players, namely, the civil society, the judiciary, the law enforcement organs and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission are briefly discussed first.  Secondly, the functions of selected regional and international institutions, namely, the Southern African Development Community, the African Union and the United Nations are discussed in relation to the protection of human rights in Zimbabwe. Thereafter, concluding remarks and possible recommendations that could be utilised to combat human rights violations and enhance the protection of human rights in Zimbabwe are provided.