Human Rights-related issues arising from COVID-19 responses of states
Right to health (including infrastructure, access to testing)
The country’s health system has been malfunctioning for quite a number of years. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic further strained the system. This has been a result of the fact that the government is underfunding health services. The shortage of PPE equipment and ventilators in intensive care hospitals poorly remunerated and demotivated health workers who have been frequently striking were some of the factors that are self-defeating to the government’s COVID-19 protective and prevention measures. COVID-19 patients are finding it difficult to be admitted. This challenge is being faced by both public and private hospitals. Allegations of diversion of funds by the Ministry of Health have been reported.
The Zimbabwean Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) has approached the High Court in Harare to compel the Government of Zimbabwe to provide basic healthcare infrastructure in order to be able to combat the pandemic. The Association claimed that more than 1,500 of their members do not have personal protection equipment.
This is also combined with the pre-pandemic health challenges like HIV/AIDS in the country. Currently, at least 12% of the population are living with HIV/AIDS and given the realities on health infrastructure, it is not immediately clear whether the government has made any special plans for these persons.
Right to housing (including homelessness, informal settlements, slums, shacks)
The government left 200 Harare based families homeless after demolishing their shacks without providing alternative homes. This happened in December 2020 during heavy rains and the ongoing pandemic https://www.voanews.com/africa/zimbabwe-city-evicts-families-amid-pandemic
In March 2021, Amnesty International recorded close to 12 000 families in Shangani Indigenous minority groups “facing eviction from their ancestral land in Chilonga” without the provision of alternative accommodation.
Right to water and sanitation
Currently, at least two million residents of the capital city of Harare have no household access to safe drinking water or adequate waste or wastewater disposal services. Section 77(a) of the Zimbabwean Constitution of 2013 provides that ‘every person has the right to safe, clean, and potable water.’
The challenge to access to safe water in Zimbabwe’s major cities was worsened by the outbreak of the pandemic. The problem was caused by recurring droughts and failure to import water chemicals. Charity organisations stepped up, particularly in 2020. People depended on open water sources where the practising of COVID-19 prevention measures like social distancing, was a challenge. In January 2021, heavy rains that were received throughout the country brought relief as the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) corporate communications and marketing manager Marjorie Munyonga told the state-run Herald newspaper that as of March 1 2021, Zimbabwe's dam level average had risen to 95.9 per cent.
Right to food/ nutrition and other socio-economic rights
In a recent report by the World Food Programme (WFP), it is estimated that at least 60% of Zimbabweans will face a hunger crisis by December 2020 if nothing is done. The crisis is said to be precipitated by the biting triple effects of drought, economic recession and coronavirus in Zimbabwe.
Despite this dim outlook, the Zimbabwean government insists that it is on top of the looming hunger crisis even while current realities in the country shows otherwise.
Favourable rainfall experienced in 2020/21 is expected to significantly improve access to food, particularly in rural areas. In urban areas, with residents who are mainly market reliant, their access to food is being impacted by COVID-19 restrictions which limit their income-earning activities, mainly in the informal sector thereby lowering their purchasing power.
Economic impact/ impact small business/ employment social security networks
The right to work has been adversely affected in Zimbabwe since the lockdown began. The ZADHR had to approach the Court for provisioning of healthcare equipment also in April 2020, the Food Federation and Allied Workers Union of Zimbabwe (FFAWUZ) also had to approach the Ministry of Labour and Social Services to get adequate protective gear. In April 2020, Intercape – a Travel Bus Company laid off its works in Zimbabwe. The business also closed down in Zimbabwe cutting workers’ salaries by 50%.
The government also introduced several economic measures to manage the adverse impacts of COVID-19 which included a ZW$18billion economic recovery and the stimulus package. It was targeted at individuals, small businesses, and industries. Other government initiatives included the government’s assistance of ZW$200 to vulnerable families per month for 3 months effective in April 2020. The government also deferred rent and mortgage payments during the lockdown period starting from 1 April 2020 but the right to defer rentals and mortgage repayments was then terminated with effect from 30 June 2020.
Foreign currency traders, vegetable vendors and other informal workers cooperated with extreme 2020 coronavirus restrictions which prolonged for ten months. But when the government launched another lockdown in January 2021, they did not fully comply .
In response to prolonged lockdowns which negatively affected, particularly the informal sector which was not classified as part of ‘essential services’, the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) funded Sizimele Consortium to develop and launch a mobile application called Sizimele. This application creates an online platform where food and agricultural related equipment and material are marketed. It was meant to keep informal buyers and sellers in close contact
Women (including domestic violence)
Women are currently facing challenges of lack of access to healthcare including maternal healthcare, sexual and reproductive rights in Zimbabwe. Several thousands of women and children have to queue for hours to get water from boreholes during the pandemic in Zimbabwe. Due to the biting economic hardship in Zimbabwe, there is a spike in child prostitution.
In 2020, the national GBV Hotline (Musasa) recorded a total of 6,832 GBV calls from the beginning of the lockdown on 30 March until the end of December (1,312 in April, 915 in May 2020, 779 in June, 753 in July, 766 in August, 629 in September, 546 in October, and 567 in November and 565 in December), with an overall average increase of over 40 per cent compared to the pre-lockdown trends. About 94 per cent of the calls are from women.
Children (including education)
The transition from traditional learning to a form of distance learning severely affected children who are underprivileged as they could not access information through digital means. As a result, 88 primary schools were reported to have recorded 0% pass rate. The Zimbabwe School Examination Council (ZIMSEC) Board chairperson Eddie Mwenje ascribed this failure to the pandemic. Schools had closed from 24 March and reopened only on 28 September 2020. The schools normally reopen at the beginning of the second week of January, however, the invention of the 30 days lockdown in January 2021 changed the academic calendar and necessitated the opening of schools on 22 March 2021. The implication was those poor childrenwithout access to electricity, television, radios and cell phones were further left behind in the 2021 academic year.
The Ministry of Education collaborated with the Ministry of Health and Child Care and invented Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) COVID-19 prevention and protection guidelines that were to assist schools to create a safe learning environment for children in schools.
It was reported that young girls are currently being forced into early marriages due to the closedown of schools during the lockdown period. Also, there are reports that due to the economic impacts of the pandemic, children are currently working in mines and fields.
Persons with disabilities
It was reported that the government did not make any specific provisions for persons living with disabilities during the pandemic in Zimbabwe.
From the assessment conducted by the UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa on Persons with disabilities in Zimbabwe, it was revealed that lockdown restrictions weighed heavily on the livelihoods of persons with disabilities. Consequently, social ills such as anxiety, gender-based violence and lack of access to food, medical services are widely experienced among People With Disabilities.
LGBTI persons
Currently, according to a report, LGBTI persons are currently facing discrimination in accessing healthcare services in Zimbabwe.
Indigenous persons
There is no publicly available information on indigenous persons at the time of preparing this report.
Migrants
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) recorded a high number of Zimbabweans who returned home since the outbreak of the pandemic. The IOM survey revealed that decisions to return were linked to the negative impacts of the pandemic, which include, among others, loss of jobs and other sources of income, issues related to documentation, hunger and loss of accommodation.
Persons deprived of their liberty (persons in incarceration; police detention)
Zimbabwe’s prisons have a capacity of 17 000 prisoners but 22 000 were held. To reduce the spread of the pandemic, President, Emmerson Mnangagwa issued a presidential amnesty in 2021. 3 000 prisoners are gradually being released throughout the country’s prisons.
Right to life and bodily security (arrests; deaths as a result of the lockdown)
(See B6 above)
Freedom of assembly
A number of persons were arrested ahead and on the day of a protest on 31 July 2020 in Zimbabwe.
Freedom of movement
At least 100,000 people have been arrested in Zimbabwe for flouting the lockdown rules. On 2 January 2021, SI 10 2021 was gazetted. It mandated workers in the Essential Services sector to carry copies of the Lockdown Exemption Letter. These letters were to be presented to authorities upon request, in roadblocks and checkpoints. This significantly restricted people’s freedom of movement as those who were not in the Essential Services Sector was compelled to stay at home.
Freedom of expression/ access to information/ privacy/digital rights
Hopewell Chin’ono was arrested on 20 July 2020 for exposing the embezzlement of COVID-19 funds in Zimbabwe which he tweeted on his Twitter account. He also tweeted his arrest through the Twitter account. He was charged for incitement to participate in public violence. His bail applications were brought before the court three times and they were all denied. His Twitter account seems to have been suspended. On the fourth application, he was granted bail on 2 September 2020 with conditions including a bond of Z$10,000 and that he cannot use his Twitter account during the pendency of the case.
The controversial Article 14 of the Statutory Instrument 83, Public Health (COVID-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) Order, 2020 (hereinafter referred to as the Order) has been classified as a violation of regional and international freedom of expression standards. Article 14 of the Order criminalises the publication or communication of “false news about any public officer, official or enforcement officer involved with enforcing or implementing the national lockdown”. Twenty year imprisonment is a fine attached to the violation of article 14 of the Order. This has been analysed as a means of using the pandemic by the government to unjustifiably and unreasonably restrict freedom of expression.
