Africa, Headlines, Human Rights, North America

RIGHTS: Zimbabwe Targets Groups’ Foreign Funding

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Dec 13 2004 (IPS) - Victims of human rights abuses receiving medical treatment or legal advice from dozens of non-profit groups in Zimbabwe could be among those cut off if the government authorises a proposed law that bans foreign rights organisations from working in the country, as well as foreign funding of local groups.

"The law is a direct attack on human rights in Zimbabwe and should be immediately repealed," said Kolawole Olaniyan, the director of Amnesty International’s Africa programme.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) also strongly denounced the bill, which must still be signed by President Robert Mugabe, whose increasingly autocratic rule has drawn strong condemnation from the West and disapproval from African governments, as well.

"This law would enable the government to intervene in the reasonable activities of civil society organisations and possibly force many of them to close," said Georgette Gagnon, deputy director of HRW’s Africa division. "It would undermine the fundamental freedoms of association and expression in Zimbabwe," she added Friday, international Human Rights Day.

The southern African country, which served through much of Mugabe’s rule as a major bulwark against apartheid in neighbouring South Africa, has long had a vibrant civil society, but as Mugabe – who has served as president since independence in 1980 – has felt threatened by growing opposition to his rule, his government has periodically clamped down hard against critics, including independent newspapers and foreign media organisations, opposition political parties and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Observers have charged that the government resorted to intimidation and fraud in elections in 2000 and 2002 in order to ensure its victory over the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Amid jockeying for the succession within his ZANU-Patriotic Front party and new parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in March, the Non-Governmental Organisations Act (NGO Act) appears designed to set the stage for a new crackdown that will make it much harder for local NGOs to continue their work and for foreign groups to report on the human rights situation to the rest of the world.

The U.S. State Department suggested Friday that the bill, as well as a new electoral law passed on the same day, could well jeopardise prospects for "free and fair elections" in March. It called on Mugabe not to sign either law.

The NGO Act specifically targets organisations that "promote and protect human rights," but it also gives the government sweeping powers to interfere with the operations of any body in Zimbabwe through the creation of a government-appointed NGO Council with which all groups must officially register.

HRW said it was particularly concerned about the limitations the proposed law would place on NGOs active on a whole range of issues that may well go beyond human rights. The bill states that no foreign NGO will be registered if "its sole or principal objects involve or include issues of governance," which includes the protection of human rights.

Similarly, local organisations working on governance issues, which could include corruption or even certain kinds of development assistance, would be barred from receiving "any foreign funding or donation."

Moreover, the bill broadly defines as "foreign" anyone who is not "a permanent resident of Zimbabwe or a citizen of Zimbabwe domiciled in Zimbabwe."

Thus, any Zimbabwean NGO with membership that includes expatriate Zimbabweans could be considered "foreign" under the Act. HRW pointed out that many civil-society groups in Zimbabwe depend on foreign and expatriate funding to carry out their activities.

"Preventing local NGOs from receiving foreign funding for human rights work would effectively mean the end of many vital human rights programmes, as there is so little local funding available," said Amnesty’s Olaniyan in a statement.

The Zimbabwe National Association of NGOs (NANGO), which represents more than 1,000 civic and rights groups, called the bill "unacceptable" stressing that it could "result in the shutting down of the majority of NGOs in the country. It estimated the total number of groups that could be affected at about 3,000.

"Coming as it does on the international day for human rights, the bill can only buttress the perception that the government is probably not committed to the promotion and protection of human rights," a NANGO spokesperson said, noting as well that churches and electoral monitors may well be affected.

Amnesty said it expects the law to be enforced selectively, as has been the case for other repressive legislation approved over the past four years. It noted that the Media Information Commission that was established in 2002 – apparently a model for the proposed NGO Council – has been used to harass and, in some cases, close down independent media.

"If the NGOS Act is enforced across the board," said Olaniyan, "tens of thousands of people being assisted by NGO programmes could suffer. Reputable and dedicated human rights organisations in Zimbabwe provide vital medical and psychological care and legal advice to victims of human rights violations."

"Most victims have nowhere else to turn in a country where unemployment is above 70 percent and the health service has been severely eroded," he added.

Both Amnesty and HRW pointed out that the bill’s terms violate a number of international human rights agreements ratified by Zimbabwe, among them the Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections that was recently agreed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) of which Zimbabwe is a founding member.