The papers contained herein are the final papers from the 2016 National Symposium on the Promise of the Declaration of Rights under the Constitution of Zimbabwe, held at Cresta Lodge, Harare, Zimbabwe, on 5 December 2016, under the Zimbabwe Human Rights Capacity Development Programme (hereinafter ‘Zimbabwe Programme’) As to their substantive content, they analyse and expand upon the following topics: the interpretation clause of Zimbabwe’s Declaration of Rights; protection of women against violence in Zimbabwe; the constitutional state and traditionalism; and traditional leadership, customary law and access to justice
The overall objective of the Zimbabwe Programme is: to contribute to enhanced enjoyment of constitutional rights in Zimbabwe, through legislation, policies, practices and decision-making being increasingly informed by international human rights standards and principles. Its main implementing partners at the time of writing are: Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (hereinafter ‘RWI’) at Lund University, Sweden; Centre for Applied Legal Research (hereinafter ‘CALR’) in Harare, Zimbabwe; College of Business, Peace, Leadership and Governance at Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe; Faculty of Law at Midlands State University in Gweru, Zimbabwe; Herbert Chitepo School of Law at Great Zimbabwe University in Masvingo, Zimbabwe; Faculty of Law at University of Zimbabwe in Harare, Zimbabwe; Faculty of Law at Ezekiel Guti University in Bindura, Zimbabwe; and Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission. The Zimbabwe Programme is supported by Swedish development cooperation.
The national symposium is an annual event under the Zimbabwe Programme. It is co-organised by RWI together with the academic partner institutions and CALR, and is a forum where research funded and conducted during the year is packaged and presented before an audience representing diverse sectors of Zimbabwean society, thereby allowing the presenters and participants to in plenary engage in vibrant discussions around the topics at hand and together deliberate on the way forward with regard to critical human rights reform issues. The feedback and experiences shared during the national symposium also aid and feed into the preparation of final papers for publication and dissemination. In addition to the just said, the papers contained herein have undergone a peer review process with the reviewers’ feedback taken into account so as to improve their overall quality.
With that said, RWI would like to conclude by thanking the researchers for their hard work and determination, which resulted in these final papers that make up this collection. RWI would also like to thank Swedish development cooperation for supporting the research, and thereby ensuring it saw the light of day. Finally, it is RWI’s sincere wish that you, the reader, find these papers thought-provoking and informative as well as an eventual source of inspiration and guidance in your own potential efforts towards furthering the provisions contained in the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe and its comprehensive Declaration of Rights.
About the Raoul Wallenberg Institute:
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute, based in Lund, Sweden, is a research and academic institution with offices, programmes and convening power covering 40 countries. RWI combines evidence-based human rights research with direct engagement in close collaboration with its partners to bring about human rights change for all. The Institute is named after Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews and other people at risk in Hungary at the end of World War II.
For more information on RWI, please visit: www.rwi.lu.se