Two representatives from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), executive director Irene Petras and lawyer Andrew Makoni, are in Halifax to talk about their organization and the human-rights situation in Zimbabwe. It is one of five stops on a Canadian tour.
ZLHR aims to protect Zimbabweans from rights abuses. The organization has just won the John Humphrey Freedom Award for its work in obtaining justice for rights-abuse victims in Zimbabwe.
In all their cases since 2003, there hasn’t been one conviction of a human-rights offender.
“We’ve got very corrupt institutions that are not accountable to the people and they haven’t been able to protect them,” Petras says. “We’re talking about the judiciary, the election commission, which failed to protect the vote in 2008, earlier this year. We’ve got a police force that has been involving itself in many human-rights violations.”
The power-sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been signed but not implemented, leaving the country without a functioning government for the past eight months and creating a brutal situation.
“Nothing has changed. If anything, we have seen an escalation in rights violations of late,” says Makoni. “This agreement is a clause to protect life and to allow free political activities, yet freedom of assembly and association and freedom of expression and activists continue to be targeted.”
Petras says winning the John Humphrey award has special meaning.
“For this kind of recognition so far from home, it gives us hope. It’s very reassuring to know that the international community is watching what’s happening in Zimbabwe.”
