Report at: http://hub.witness.org/sites/hub.witness.org/files/Putting_it_Right.pdf
Video at: http://hub.witness.org/en/HearUs-ViolenceAgainstWomeninZimbabwe2
Zimbabwe: NGO Documents Women Abuse
9 May 2009
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AMONG the worst victims of politically-motivated violence are women.
They have suffered largely in silence.
But last week saw the first of several initiatives to roll back the
darkness enveloping the violations.
The Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), a non-governmental organisation
(NGO) providing specialist assistance in research and advocacy in the
field of human rights, democracy and governance, launched a video and
released a report documenting political and human rights violations
against women in Zimbabwe.
The documentary, Hear Us - Zimbabwean Women Affected by Political
Violence Speak Out, and accompanying report, Putting it Right:
Addressing Human Rights Violations Against Zimbabwean Women, present the
findings of RAU's study and call for action on the issue of politically
motivated violence against women.
The video narrates the stories of four women who were tortured for their
political activities or those of a family member. A
30-something-year-old woman identified as Memory recounts how she was
raped by youth militia.
"When I arrived at the base, they removed all my clothes and I was raped
by three men, one after the other."
When she went to the police to report the incident, she was told that
they would not accept her statement. The policeman told her: "We are not
dealing with political violence cases. The time will come when we will
deal with them."
It is estimated more than 2000 women were raped at militia camps between
May and July 2008, according to Zimbabwean Human Rights groups.
Since the police did not accept reports of politically-motivated
violence in Zimbabwe in 2008 and that women reporting rape often
encountered suspicion and hostility or did not make a report due to the
stigma attached to rape victims in Zimbabwe, rights groups believe the
actual number of women affected by this violence is much greater than
that documented to date.
In the accompanying report, Putting it Right: Addressing Human Rights
Violations Against Zimbabwean Women, the overriding assertion is that in
all situations of conflict, merely by virtue of their gender, women are
both primary and secondary victims of violence.
When the political parties in Zimbabwe signed a historic agreement on
the September 15, 2008 undertaking to put an end to the political and
economic crisis and to end politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe,
women welcomed the Global Political Agreement (GPA) as it acknowledges
the equality between men and women and recognizes women's role in
nation-building and the abuses they suffered in the process, and
continue to suffer.
Any transitional process will not be effective unless it addresses the
issues raised by those affected and acknowledges the evidence that in
Zimbabwe attempts at national healing and reconciliation without justice
provide but a short-term remedy to conflict.
The overall argument from both the film and the accompanying report
urges the government to adhere to the GPA by returning to the rule of
law; bringing all the perpetrators of violence to book; ensuring that
there is no discrimination based on gender; ensuring community
integration and national healing ; and involving women at every stage of
the transitional process on issues that relate to them as women.
RAU a member of the Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe is calling for the end
to political violence, especially against women.
The video gives women a voice in the hope that more women will speak out
about the abuses they endured, and demand that these abuses are
addressed in a respectful manner, but only after the affected have been
consulted.
The Minister of State in the Organ of National Healing, Reconciliation
and Integration, Sekai Holland - herself a victim of state-sponsored
violence acknowledged state-sponsored violence on citizens who dared to
hold opposing views to the political elite at each successive phase in
the history of the country, even before the colonial period.
Copyright (c) 2009 Zimbabwe Standard. All rights reserved. Distributed
by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).