Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe

Date: Friday 15 May 2009
Venue: Gweru Baptist Church
Number of participants: 47
Time: 9:45 – 3:15 

Introduction
According to the resolution of the ROHR Zimbabwe’s Board meeting held in South Africa at Protea Balalaika Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg on the 2nd – 5th April 2009, through the office of the National Chairman and the Programmes and Networking department, ROHR Zimbabwe held a workshop in Gweru for its leaders in Midlands province. These were represented by three people per administrative district to give a general total of 24 people from 8 districts. In order to achieve our goals and as a networking strategy, we invited people representing different organisations in the civil society. The main event of the day was provincial structure building presided over by the National Chairman. National healing and reconciliation was also top on the agenda of the day.    

Aims and objectives of the workshops
·         Structure building and consolidation at provincial level.
·         Popularise ROHR activities and get people’s expectations.
·         Inform, mobilise, motivate, inspire, empower, strengthen and develop ROHR members in all provinces of Zimbabwe to defend, promote and claim their fundamental freedoms, justice and both their constitutional and democratic rights.
·         Consultation on the issue of National healing and reconciliation. 

Issues covered / Agenda. Overall chair: Programmes Director, Clifford Hlatywayo. 
1.       Opening remarks – Midlands Chairman, Mr G Ngazimbi
2.       Introductions – Midlands Secretary, Mr N Dzika
3.       Structuring – National Chairman, Mr Ray Muzenda
4.       What is ROHR – structure, vision, mission, activities, mandate, expectations –  National Chairman, Mr Ray Muzenda
5.       The human rights situation in Zimbabwe – Z=IMCET Representative, Mr M Sifelani
6.       National Healing and Reconciliation – truth, justice & compensation vs forgive & forget – NANGO Representative, Mr Denzel Mushayi
7.       The constitutional making process – NCA Representative, Mr Mumvana
8.       Peoples expectations from ROHR Participatory – Mr N Dzika
9.       Way Forward (programs) – National Chairman, Mr R Muzenda
10.   Closing Remarks – Midlands Representative, Mr G Ngazimbi  

Resolutions from deliberations
·         Domestication of international human rights treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on People and Human Rights.
·         People and the nation needs healing but this is not the right time since violence and human rights abuses are still prevalent in different areas e.g. farm invasions, unlawful arrests, killings, police brutality, no respect to the GPA and above all it is not the right government of the day for the people.
·         The National healing process must be victim centred not being led by the violators i.e. it must be bottom- top approach not top – bottom approach and it must  be all inclusive i.e. the church, civil society, the Diaspora, traditional leaders, government, victims, perpetrators etc.
·         The process of national healing must be as follows: People driven constitution - free, fair, peaceful & democratic elections - Government of the people, for the people by the people (legitimate government) - Truth - Justice - Compensation - Reconciliation - Forgive - Forget - National Integration.
·         No one has the right to write or make a constitution for us. The constitutional making process must be people driven not parliamentary driven. 
·         Depoliticisation and demilitarisation of state institutions such as GMB, NRZ, Sports and recreation commission,
·         Depoliticization of national youth training structures e.g. the Border Gezi.
·         Rohr Zimbabwe to intensify public education programs in rural areas e.g. grassroots workshops, road shows, public meetings.
·         Rohr Zimbabwe must launch information dissemination campaign targeting rural areas since that’s where human rights abuses area rampant, these must be through production of fliers, pamphlets, bandanas, T-Shirts, hats, posters, banners, audio and visual CDs on human rights issues.
·         Rohr Zimbabwe to push for the inclusion of women in constitutional making process and in championing human rights issues as a way of empowering them.
·         Rohr Zimbabwe must design programmes specifically for women and youth.
·         Elected structures to be supported by the head office.

Achievements
·         All eight administrative districts were fairly represented.
·         Gender and the youth issues were fairly represented from all districts.
·         The agenda was well covered in totality and the discussion was very live and interesting.
·         There was a mixture of presenters i.e. from other civic organisations and different age groups, old and the youth.
·         A substantive structure was elected and installed with a fair representation of the whole province.
·         Taking some video clips of victims of political violence since 2000.

Challenges
·         Serious and unnecessary interference in the Programmes department’s coordination efforts and responsibility by a certain department.
·         The time factor, we were supposed to start at 0800hrs and finish at 1400hrs. This led to the fast tracking of other vital issues that was left not exhorted in discussions.
·         Budgetary constrains i.e. the workshop was under financed which led to the disgruntlements of other individuals due to inadequate bus fares.
·         No Rohr Zimbabwe materials to be used in workshops.

Recommendations
·         The leadership of Rohr Zimbabwe should try to stick to the budget so as to reduce unnecessary pressure on the implementers.
·         The Programmes and  the Information and publicity department, develop information packs to be used in workshops and other programmes of this kind.
·         The leadership to clearly pronounce the demarcation lines of duties and responsibility as far as organisation’s projects is concern. The Programmes department is responsible for identifying, designing, coordinating, implementing, monitoring, evaluating and compiling reports on behalf of the organisation while the Administration and finance department is responsible for adequately resourcing the whole programme not coordinating and administering programmes. The Information department is responsible for marketing and publicising before and after the programme internally and externally.

Overall rating
Very successful

Conclusion
The department of Programmes and Networking is ready to coordinate and implement all the organisations plans, policies, programmes and projects. It is prepared to take any risky for the sake of promoting and defending the fundamental human freedoms and democratic rights of the people. As a department we believe in people’s power, mass participation and grassroots based approaches so as to achieve our vision of having a peaceful, just and free nation that is conscious of and respects human rights and this must be through the promotion of a culture of human rights in Zimbabwe through community mobilisation, capacity building and active responses to human rights challenges.  

Prepared by Clifford Hlatywayo
Programmes Director for the department of Programmes and Networking 

ROHR holds provincial leadership development workshops in Midlands and Bulawayo.

On Friday and Saturday 15-16 May 2009, Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR) embarked on leadership development workshops in Midlands and Bulawayo provinces respectively. The two workshops were held under the banner of capacity building, restructuring and strengthening community leadership. The meetings which saw the delegates discussing the  Constitution making process, National Healing  and the human rights situation in the country were attended by ROHR Midlands provincial leadership, representatives from NANGO, NCA, ZIMCET, ZCTU, Women’s Coalition Group, political parties and many other civic organizations.

Delegates expressed growing mistrust in the current government’s credibility and ability to address and lead the critical issues of National Healing and the Constitutional making process given the continued human rights violations perpetrated by the state machinery. Human rights defenders, members of the opposition parties, journalist and lawyers are still facing prosecution on trumped up charges.   

In the eyes of the people on the ground nothing has changed. 

Amongst the delegates were victims from last year’s orgy of state sponsored violence. The people voiced their disappointment over the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s failure and reluctance to bring their violators before justice.

Worse still, is the agony of seeing people who committed bloody crimes still walking scot free. As a result people in the community are still hounded by fear of the unknown. Delegates came to the conclusion that without Truth and Justice there will be no guarantee that those who committed crimes will not repeat it again.

Some of the issues raised include:
·         Domestication of International conventions on human rights such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR)  into the new constitution so that they become legally binding and enforceable.
·         An urgent need for grassroots education on human rights issues for everyone to actively participate in the constitutional reform process.
·         Representation of women in Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and constitutional reform process to advocate for women’s rights and empowerment.
·         De-politicization of the Youth Training service.
·         There is lack of professionalism and respect for humanity among the police, army CIO and prison officials hence there is need to educate them if the national healing process is to take off.
·         There cannot be justice before the truth is said and established.
·         Politicians lack credibility in leading the national healing process since most of them were involved in political violence witnessed in the country.