The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has asked the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union to condemn the arrest of peaceful anti-corruption protesters by authorities in Zimbabwe.

Development Diaries learnt that the authorities in the country had arrested at least 60 people, including  novelist, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and the opposition MDC Alliance spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere, in connection with anti-corruption protests.

The Southern Africa director at the HRW, Dewa Mavhinga, urged regional bodies to call out the country’s government for allegedly violating human rights.

‘SADC and the African Union should call out Zimbabwe’s government for its repression and rampant abuses throughout the country. [It is] important for these regional institutions to send strong signals to the [President Emmerson] Mnangagwa administration that flagrant violations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other human rights treaties are unacceptable’.

Following the disruption of the protests, the chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Solomon Dersso, urged countries to respect the principles of legality.

‘As we follow the situation in Zimbabwe, [it is] critical to reiterate the African Commission on Human Rights’ view that actions of states even in fighting Covid-19 should comply with principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality, thus, no basis for arbitrary deprivation of liberty or life, inhumane treatment or torture’, he said in a tweet.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Photo source: Andres Musta