Zimbabwe CSOs speak ahead of Zim's universal periodic review

Zimbabwe government representatives, diplomats and civil society representatives on Wednesday 21 September 2011 attended a side meeting at the ongoing 18th session of United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Right’s Dzimbabwe Chimbga updated participants on the current human rights situation obtaining in the country. He also reviewed the long path that CSOs have traversed since 2010 in preparing for the forthcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) before providing an overview of the Advocacy Charter prepared by local civil society organisations (CSOs) in relation to the government’s National Report.

The UPR is a unique human rights mechanism of the UNHRC aimed at improving the human rights situation on the ground in each of the UN Member States. Under this mechanism, the human rights situation of all UN member States is reviewed every 4 years. At each of its meetings the Council devotes much of its time to consideration of country reports from the process of review in which every UN member State has agreed to participate.

Zimbabwe’s compliance with its international obligations is scheduled to be scrutinised by the global community of nations on 10 October 2011. The government has produced its National Report which it will present at the UPR session; local and international CSOs have submitted several Stakeholder Reports to assist the UNHRC in assessing the accuracy of this National Report.

As has become the custom, Zimbabwe government representatives based in Geneva were in attendance to dispute presentations made and defend the government’s tainted human rights record in advance of the review.

More updates will be forthcoming in the days leading up to the review on 10 October 2011.


(2011-9-23/TheZimbabwean)