Amnesty International (AI) has called on the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to reject the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Bill, 2022, commonly referred to as the ‘patriotic bill’.

Development Diaries reports that the Zimbabwean Senate on 07 June, 2023, passed the bill, which criminalises anyone caught ‘wilfully injuring the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe’.

The law also criminalises those who participate in meetings with the intention of promoting calls for economic sanctions against the country.

It is understood that if the law is passed, it would open the door to violations of the human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.

The penalties provided by the bill range from loss of citizenship, denial of the right to vote and the death penalty.

‘The passing of the ‘Patriotic Bill’ by the Senate is deeply concerning and signals a disturbing crack down on Zimbabweans’ rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association’, AI’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Flavia Mwangovya, said.

‘The weaponisation of the law is a desperate and patent move to curtail the rights to freedom of expression and to public participation in elections due in August this year.

‘The Bill’s deliberately vague and overly broad provisions on damaging Zimbabwe’s interest and sovereignty, including by calling for economic sanctions, flies in the face of Zimbabwe’s international human rights obligations.

‘All laws must be defined precisely, allowing people to know exactly which acts will make them criminally liable’.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a 2022 report, said that the administration of Mnangagwa had failed to take meaningful steps to uphold human rights and ensure justice for serious abuses primarily committed by security forces.

In its 2023 Freedom in the World report on political rights and civil liberties, Freedom House ranked Zimbabwe as ‘not free’, with the southern African country earning 28 points out of a possible 100.

Development Diaries joins AI in calling on President Mnangagwa to respect the international human rights treaties to which Zimbabwe is a party.

Photo source: Gary Bembridge