The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has used this year’s International Human Rights Day commemorations in Harare to deliver a blunt assessment of the country’s human rights landscape warning that the gap between constitutional promises and lived realities continues to widen.
Under the global theme “Human Rights, Our Everyday Essentials,” the organisation acknowledged the government’s ratification of key human rights mechanisms.
However, it said Zimbabweans are still confronted daily with systemic neglect, administrative failures and in some cases active violations by those entrusted with authority.
The commemoration came a day after the launch of ZimRights’ People’s Human Rights Manifesto Monitoring Guide, Between Promise and Reality which audits election promises made ahead of the 2023 polls.
The People’s Human Rights Manifesto (PHRM) distils constitutional rights into 10 everyday essentials that ZimRights says remain out of reach for countless households.
With a grassroots membership of 250 000 spread across all provinces, the group said its findings reflect a deepening national crisis.
According to ZimRights, the country’s everyday essentials are eroding on multiple fronts.
The organisation said the essential right to accountable governance “is mocked by a persistent culture of impunity and opacity,” citing corruption scandals, a lack of meaningful prosecutions and the absence of feedback platforms from elected officials.
Healthcare, ZimRights said has become a nightmare for many with chronic drug shortages, broken equipment and demoralised staff compromising the right to treatment.
Ambulance shortages and decaying infrastructure, it added have turned preventable tragedies into routine occurrences.
On education, the association pointed to the unfulfilled constitutional commitment to free basic schooling saying public schools are hampered by inadequate infrastructure and underpaid staff.
Livelihoods, too, remain under pressure with savings eroded unemployment rising and informal traders operating without adequate support.
Access to water and energy remains a daily struggle ZimRights said with millions still waking up to dry taps and erratic power supplies disrupting households and small businesses a situation the organisation described as a direct violation of our right to a decent standard of living.
Civic space it warned, is shrinking. Peaceful meetings and protests are “often met with unwarranted surveillance, intimidation, or dispersal by security forces,” undermining the right to expression and assembly.
The group also criticised forced evictions and displacements saying the essential right to land and decent shelter is routinely violated, leaving many families in perpetual vulnerability.
On political rights, ZimRights said the persistent use of patronage and politically targeted exclusion from aid has undermined citizens’ freedom of choice and fractured communities.
The organisation noted that fewer than 15% of elected officials hold regular meetings with constituents calling accountability “a mirage” and asserting that this undermines Section 194 of the Constitution on public administration.
As the world marks Human Rights Day, ZimRights insisted that these essentials are non-negotiable entitlements and urged leaders to recommit to service, transparency and people-centred governance.
“We call for a renewed commitment to action over rhetoric, to service over self-enrichment and to the people over everything else,” the organisation said.
ZimRights vowed to continue monitoring government actions tracking promises and mobilising communities.
“Our struggle continues until every Zimbabwean can claim their everyday essentials.” said ZimRights.
