Where Right Is Might: Zimbabwe's Human Rights Situation

In recent years Zimbabwe's detractors have attempted to demonise Zimbabwe over allegations of human rights abuse. So persistent have these detractors been that they even attempted to bring Zimbabwe before the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations Human Rights Council on these spurious allegations. However in a clear case of ‘right being might' these attempts have repeatedly failed. Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe's friends in the international community have managed to thwart these attempts.

In analysing Zimbabwe's relations with the West and the human rights issue, one is confronted with the startling coincidence that human rights abuse allegations against the Government began when Zimbabwe launched the Land Reform Programme. While Zimbabwe was upheld as a paragon for emerging democracies the restoration of land to the landless indigenous people ruffled the feathers of the Western powers whose kith and kin sought to hold on to the land. Realising that they could not question the unjust land ownership pattern which had emanated from the colonial period, the Western powers then adopted human rights as an instrument in pursuing their regime change agenda. They sought to create a false impression of a government which was indifferent to the human rights of its citizens. False stories were published, half truths told and lies peddled, all in an attempt to demonise the Government.

Yet Zimbabwe's human rights record cannot be compared to that of those nations which condemn it. The Bill of Rights in the Zimbabwe Constitution which borrowed provisions from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is justiciable in the local courts in the event of violations. Zimbabwe also subscribes to the Constitutive Act of the African Union which lists the promotion and protection of human rights as one of its objectives. Clearly therefore the Government takes its responsibility of protecting and promoting human rights seriously.

In the discourse on Zimbabwe an issue that has constantly been raised has been the Zimbabwe Police quelling of illegal and often violent demonstrations. Of course these countries, propelled by the need to demonise Zimbabwe, have ignored that the Zimbabwean Police like police in any other nation are mandated to maintain the security of property and the people against unruly elements. Indeed the responsibility to act within the confines of the law of the nation by the individual is recognised by the African Charter on Human and People's Rights which, while placing on Government the responsibility to protect its citizens, also notes that individuals also have a duty to obey the state. Indeed it is important to note that rights do not occur in a political and social vacuum.

In their quest to use human rights as an instrument of foreign policy to award favours those who play to their tune and demonise those that are not in their favour, Western Powers have deliberately turned a blind eye on economic rights. Yet, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights places on the state the responsibility of ensuring that all men and women enjoy economic, social and cultural rights. Could it then be that, these countries, guilty of denying minorities in their own countries economic rights have therefore connived to maintain silence on this equally important right. Unlike these countries, Zimbabwe through its land redistribution exercise has made a practical step towards ensuring that Zimbabweans enjoy their sovereign right to land.

Despite these clear attempts to demonise the country, Government remains committed to economically empowering the indigenous people. Through the Land Reform Programme and other economic empowerment policies and propelled by the conviction that restoring land to the landless majority was right and necessary, Government will turn a deaf ear to those who seek its demise and welcome constructive criticism from those who seek the good of the nation. Indeed for the Zimbabwe Government it has become a case of ‘ right being might ' as the firm resolution to empower the people is pursued unflinchingly.