The Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (SouthernDefenders) calls for nomination/s for the 2023 SouthernDefenders Award for outstanding Human Rights Defender/s.

The annual SouthernDefenders Award was established in 2018 to celebrate the courage and resilience of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) in Southern Africa who have made significant contributions to the promotion and protection of the human rights of others, in very difficult situations and often at significant personal risk. The Award seeks to increase the visibility of HRDs because despite the important work they do, very often they are not well known in Africa.

The situation of human rights defenders (HRDs) across causes and countries in Southern Africa remains precarious as they continue to face harassment, intimidation, physical violence, extra-judicial killings cyberbullying, and legal restrictions on their legitimate work. Several countries in the region have been criticized for restricting freedoms of expression, association and assembly, which can make it difficult for HRDs to exercise their right to defend human rights (RDHR) and hold those in power to account.  According to the 2022 Economic Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index Ranking and the 2023 Freedom House’s Freedom in the World, the democratic quality and respect for political rights in most countries in the region have consistently declined.

The 2023 CIVICUS Monitor report noted that in Southern Africa, the authorities in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe have proposed or enacted restrictive laws on civil society organizations (CSOs), raising fears of increasing restrictions on freedom of association. In Angola, the Law on State Security is a repressive legal instrument that has been used to criminalize dissent and criticism of the government. In Eswatini, the Suppression of Terrorism Act of 2008 is another repressive law that has been used to restrict freedom of expression, association, and assembly. The most recent case is that of the two pro-democracy Members of Parliament who have been in a protracted pre-trial detention since July 2021.

In South Africa, the killing of activists working on land rights and the rights of informal settlement dwellers, and the vilification of CSOs by government officials and non-state actors are cases of great concern. On August 20, 2022, Lindokuhle Nguni, one of the leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo was gunned down, becoming the third activist to be killed in the same year. This is a worrying trend globally. According to the latest Business and Human Rights Resources Centre report, in 2022 alone, 555 attacks on HRDs were recorded,  revealing that on average more than 10 defenders were attacked every single week for raising legitimate concerns about irresponsible business activity. In South Africa, increasing xenophobia and anti-immigration sentiment are being mobilized as a political platform.

To nominate, please click here. Alternatively, you can download the Word document in your preferred language, English

For more information please contact:

SouthernDefenders: +27 (0)78 125 1061 or  info@southerndefenders.africa 

#TogetherWeDefend!!!!!!!

During the build-up to the 2023 harmonized elections in Zimbabwe, I wrote a piece on The Role of International Election Observers in the 2023 Zimbabwe Harmonized Elections. The paper reflected on what election observers can and cannot do to ensure the credibility of the August 23 harmonized election. I concluded by noting election observers play a critical role in ensuring the credibility of elections. However, in the paper, I failed to appreciate the role of election observers as human rights defenders. This position changed on the night of August 23, when the offices of the Election Resource Centre (ERC) and the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) were raided by the police under the guise of preventing them from announcing the election results ahead of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).

The arrest and subsequent detention of the observers got me to reflect on their role in elections and concluded that it goes beyond simply observing elections to protecting and monitoring human rights during elections. In this regard, must we consider election observers as human rights defenders? As I read and researched more it became obvious that, in many cases, election observation has been viewed as separate from human rights monitoring and protection. The release of the statement on “The Situation of Election Observers as Human Rights Defenders” by the UN Special Rapporteurs Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, and Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, has shifted how election observers are viewed globally.

The first step in understanding and appreciating the role of election observers as human rights defenders is to understand what constitutes a human rights defender. Defined, a human rights defender is anyone who acts to promote or protect human rights in a peaceful manner, either individually or with others. To be a human rights defender, a person can act to address any human right (or rights) on behalf of individuals or groups. Human rights defenders seek to promote and protect civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights and other international instruments.

The second step is to understand and appreciate the nexus between human rights and elections. Elections facilitate the enjoyment of multiple human rights, such as the right to participate in the affairs of the State. If they are genuine and credible, they empower the people to express their will and provide an essential way by which people can have a voice in their governance. Human rights such as freedom of expression, opinion, association, peaceful assembly, the right to information, and the right to an effective remedy help to ensure a safe environment for elections if they are strictly respected.

The third step, in the context of elections, is to determine the role of election observers as human rights defenders. Election observers play a crucial role in protecting and monitoring human rights by securing the right to vote, as provided for under civil and political rights, and redressing election-related human rights violations that are often associated with electoral contests. The election process cannot be free and fair if human rights such as the freedom of association, assembly, expression, opinion, and movement are not enjoyed by participants and stakeholders in elections. Elections are about the protection of the right to participate in public affairs, and challenging issues related to elections require the attention of all key stakeholders because they adversely affect the enjoyment of the right to participate in public affairs.  Election observers are human rights defenders because they work to protect and promote the human rights that are essential for free and credible elections. They play a crucial role in protecting these rights by monitoring the election process, reporting on any irregularities or violations, and advocating for reforms to ensure that future elections are credible. They can also help to raise awareness of the importance of human rights in elections and to build public pressure for governments to respect these rights.

This is what the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and Election Resource Center (ERC) have been doing for a long time. However, in the lead-up to the 2023 Zimbabwe harmonized election, the country saw a further closing of space for election observers, in addition to arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, threats, intimidation, harassment, and even physical violence. One of ZESN’s observers was beaten up at a polling station in Gutu West Constituency. Negative rhetoric against civil society organizations (CSOs) to undermine their credibility in society was similarly witnessed. The Herald Newspaper, for example, carried an article titled US$37 Million Dangled to Subvert Harmonized Polls, the article was seen as meant to discredit the work of observers during the harmonized election. Nowhere in the article and others of a similar nature did the paper provide evidence to support this claim.

The ERC reported receiving numerous reports from its network of accredited observers who observed the 23 and 24 August 2023 Harmonized Election and continue to be harassed and intimidated because of their election-related work. This involved home visits and calls to attend at the ZEC offices to sign new election results forms. In addition, the cost of accreditation and deployment of long-term and short-term observers was excessively high, and the process was centralized and cumbersome, making it deliberately costly and difficult to accredit observers. The delays in accrediting election observer organizations to carry out vote education meant that there was limited information on voters’ rights before the elections. Legal instruments have also been used to curtail the work of observers, such as the Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) Bill in Zimbabwe and the Cyber Security Laws. The Public Health Emergencies Regulations (COVID) have also been used to deny observers access to elections.

Reflecting on the foregoing, it becomes apparent that election observation in Zimbabwe has a similar role in protecting and safeguarding human rights. Election observers must therefore be accorded the status of human rights defenders. By monitoring the election process, reporting on irregularities and violations, and advocating for reforms, election observers help to ensure that citizens can participate in credible elections and that their votes are counted fairly. To this end, election observers in the country must be accorded the same rights and protection as those of human rights defenders. This includes enacting and strengthening existing and enforcing laws that protect election observers. The Electoral Act must be amended to criminalize violence and threats against election observers, guarantee their right to freedom of association and assembly and clearly state their rights and obligations. They must be provided with access to justice and legal aid in addition to filing complaints against those who violate their rights with the ZEC.

In conclusion, an environment that supports the work of observers in the country must be created by providing them with access to funding, training, and other resources. In addition, institutions such as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the Human Rights Commission must play a leading role in this regard. They must take steps to ensure that election observers can carry out their work freely and without fear of reprisals. They must also raise awareness of the importance of election observation among the general public, political parties, and other electoral stakeholders. Collaboration and coordination between election observer organizations, civil society, and government institutions to ensure the effective protection of election observers’ rights must be pursued and supported. Furthermore, ZEC must condemn the continuous harassment of election observers post the harmonized election. Remaining silent further reinforces the notion that ZEC is complicit in the harassment of election observers. Being professionally offended and perpetually outraged by calls to do its work is not helping ZEC and the country.

_________________

By Taona Ernest Mwanyisa.

A Project Management practitioner specializing in program design, implementation, and evaluation for public, private enterprises and not-for-profit organizations. Cumulatively he has eighteen (18) years of relevant work experience at the national, regional, and international levels in designing strategies and managing projects for organizations.

Date: 31 August 2023

Time: 15:30 – 17;00 SAST

Register via Zoom Here

Programme

Moderators: Isabella Matambanadzo (Human Rights, Gender and Diversity Expert); Jeggan Grey-Johnson (Advocacy Manager Open Society- Africa)

Speaker: – Update on current situation and scenarios for Zimbabwe post-elections – Dr Toendepi Shonhe (Public Interest Researcher) (15 minutes)

Discussants: Prof. Chidi Odinkalo, Dr. Siphosami Malunga, Don Deya, Roselyn Hanzi, Deus Valentine, Alice Mogwe, Tanele Maseko, Janah Ncube, Samukeliso Khumalo, Prof. Adriano Nuvunga, Samson Itodo (TBC) (5 minutes each)

 Concluding Remarks and Way Forward – Brian Kagoro (10 minutes)

 Vote of thanks: – Arnold Tsunga (Convenor – Civic Space Network Africa)

Background

There has been a flurry of activities and narratives with regard to the disputed Aug. 23 election in Zimbabwe. The sham election, which many independent election observers have disqualified was characterised by systemic manipulation and outright electoral fraud as evidenced by inter alia, clumsy gerrymandering, secretive voter roll, as well as systematic voter suppression in opposition strongholds and omnipresent voter intimidation in peri-urban and rural areas. The citizen observers were disabled by partisan security forces from effectively implementing a parallel voter tabulation. A contingent of observers from the human rights sector within and outside Zimbabwe were barred from observing the elections on allegations of being security threats. Both international observer missions and citizen observers have unanimously refused to endorse the elections as free, fair and credible concluding that they fell short of minimum acceptable standards governing democratic elections.

For the first time following elections, the African Union (AU), and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) policy community seem not willing to rubber stamp a flawed election process that some have aptly described as a constitutional coup. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has sent a team of elders led by President Kikwete to Zimbabwe to carry out a “mediation” mission. Nevertheless, there is overall scepticism that this mission might try to cure this disputed election and engineer some legitimacy for the incumbent. In fact, fears abound, that like the 2007-8 mediation, this may create an escape route that reinforces the ruling party and be an opiate to the opposition, civil society and people’s agency to demand for democratic and accountable governance in an open civic space, both on and offline.

A lot of human rights and civil society leaders in Africa have been active on social media and in the press expressing opinions that something needs to be done to show active solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe before the electoral heist commanders start a power consolidation process. This process will entail deployment of an array of new and old instruments and infrastructure of repression that includes captured institutions such as the judiciary, and targeted use of repressive legislation to disrupt, dismantle and destroy any resistance to the election theft and resultant authoritarian practices and industrial scale looting and economic plunder of Zimbabwe.

In this context Civic Space Network – Africa (CSN-Africa) and Southern Defenders are arranging a postmortem and forward looking meeting of African CSO leaders to reflect on Zimbabwe together and develop solution-oriented key narratives and plausible alternatives before the civic space in Zimbabwe is completely closed by the ruling party. The thinking is that this meeting should be different to the public meetings predominantly twitter spaces that have been happening. It has to be more an intentional brainstorming session of what the African civil society leaders need to do for active and practical solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe so that the meeting helps to develop the action-oriented and impact-focused plan and not just a conversation as an end in itself.

The brainstorming should result in directional guidance to African human rights and civil society leaders as they speak on Zimbabwe in policy spaces that Zimbabweans may not have access to and also be able to reflect on how best the wider African civil society may engage, if possible, with the SADC (mediation process) to optimise transformative outcomes that lead to the shortest pathways towards restoration of legitimacy to Zimbabwe’s governmental leadership.

At the request of a significant number of African Civil Society, this brainstorming session organised by Civic Space Network and SouthernDefenders takes place via Zoom on Thursday 31st August 2023 from 3.30 PM-5.00 pm.

#TogetherWeDefend

Johannesburg | Harare

SouthernDefenders calls on the Zimbabwe authorities to immediately desist from the emerging practice of harassing and threatening election observers including citizen observers that has been a characteristic of the Zimbabwe elections 2023. SouthernDefenders also calls for the unconditional release of all the citizen observers who are either in custody or facing charges in courts related to their activities as observers of the ongoing 2023 harmonised elections. The arbitrary arrests of these accredited observers   was heavy-handed, unconstitutional and outright illegal.

“We particularly strongly  and equivocally condemn the raid that occurred on August 23,  2023 at the joint Zimbabwe Election Support Network ( ZESN) and Election Resource Centre (ERC) data centres in Grange and  at the Holiday Inn and in Harare where 38 local citizen observers were arrested and detained and several electronic equipment including computers which are their tools of trade were confiscated” said Professor Adriano Nuvunga, the Chairperson of SouthernDefenders and Executive Director at the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights in Mozambique. “As a regional network of human rights defenders, we reiterate what the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Clément Nyaletossi Voule and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor have consistently stressed ‘that election observers are human rights defenders and civil society actors’ and that there is an obligation on the state to protect election observers and ‘enable independent and impartial election observation by all monitors, including from abroad’ added Prof Nuvunga.

On 23 August the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of Zimbabwe, conducted a raid in Harare at the Holiday Inn Hotel and in Grange to disrupt joint ZESN and ERC data centres established as part of the election observation process by the network of citizen observers in Zimbabwe. During this raid, 38 citizen observers were arrested and detained. The Central Intelligence Officers and police also confiscated election observation material and equipment that the citizen observers were using to do their work. Efforts by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to track down the detained citizen observers and their equipment led them to establish that the election observers had been held and detained at the CID headquarters in Harare. They appeared before the Harare Magistrates Court on August 25, 2023 on charges of contravening section 66 of the Electoral Process Act and released on bail pending their trial.

“ZESN and ERC are reputable organisations that are leaders in the election observation sector in the region. They are legally registered and recognized under Zimbabwe law and were duly accredited by ZEC, the election management body and therefore observing the electoral process constitutionally and legally as per their mandate” said Tanele Maseko the SouthernDefenders Vice Chairperson and CEO of the Thulani Maseko Foundation. “Not only have the CIO and CID breached the constitution of Zimbabwe which according to section 2 is the supreme law of the land, but they have also undermined and needlessly jeopardized the transparency, credibility and accountability of the entire electoral process. Transparent and accountable electoral processes are essential for upholding the principles of democracy, protecting citizen’s rights to participate in free and fair elections, as well as fostering public trust in the democratic institutions of  any country” Mrs Tanele Maseko added.

In terms of section 67 (1) (a) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, every citizen has the right to free, fair and regular elections conducted in terms of the Zimbabwean Constitution.  It is not possible for citizens to evaluate whether the right to free, fair and regular elections is being adhered to without systematic and intentional electoral observation. Zimbabwe elections also need to be held in accordance with the dictates of several regional and international standards, such as the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections, Chapter 7 of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

SouthernDefenders therefore urges Zimbabwean authorities to:

• Cease the intimidation, threats and harassment of election observers and safeguard the independence of civil society.
• Cease systemic manipulation of the electoral process, including systematic voter suppression in Harare, Bulawayo and Manicaland, which undermines electoral integrity.
• Uphold and protect the inherent freedoms of association and assembly and ensure an open, inclusive and genuinely democratic electoral process.
• Immediately unconditionally drop all pending charges pending against election observers and desist from weaponizing the legal system to criminalise election observation.

For more information on this issue and on election observers as human rights defenders please contact Washington Katema on wkatema@southerndefenders.africa or +27736202608

~END~

ANNEX A TO SOUTHERN DEFENDERS STATEMENT

ELECTION OBSERVERS ARRESTED AND DETAINED FOR ELECTION OBSERVATION

1. Ferdinand Chiwaridzo
2. Thelma Matanganize
3. Benjamin Mukunga
4. Natasha Mataire
5. Thandeka Tatsvareyi
6. Kimberly Nhidza
7. Succeed Musoro
8. Christian Nyazure
9. Kudzanai Marimba
10. Kudzai Chavhunduka
11. Natasha Nyatsanza
12. Ian Goredema
13. Jack Zaba
14. Brighton Takuberekera
15. Faith Ndlovu
16. Winnie Mabeka
17. Mandlenkosi Mashingaidze
18. Lorraine Muchaiwa
19. Polite Magadza
20. Mukudzeyi Musindo
21. Sinikiwe Kandororo Zesn
22. Winnie Muhonde
23. Sandra Jambazi
24. Tadiwanashe Chiseko
25. Kudakwashe Musonza
26. Tapiwa Kapfunde
27. Shawn Saveri
28. Danai Chikowore
29. Tatenda Nyakatsapa
30. Tabani Mpofu
31. Enestacia Ruvimbo Gwanyanya
32. Nobunkosi Mutangadura
33. Trevor Enesi
34. Ashley Takudzwa Mapfumo
35. Elton Mavusa
36. Lydia Mawema
37. Tariro Jingura
38. Tanatsa Takavarasha