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The international community has responded to Zimbabwe's human rights abuses through various measures and actions:
1. Sanctions and Targeted Measures: The European Union, United Kingdom, and United States have imposed targeted sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for human rights violations in Zimbabwe[3]. These sanctions aim to pressure the government to improve its human rights record.
2. Diplomatic Pressure: International bodies and governments have consistently called on Zimbabwe to address human rights concerns. For instance, in 2021, the EU, UK, and US called for investigations into the abduction and torture of opposition members[2].
3. UN Special Procedures: United Nations special rapporteurs have expressed concerns about Zimbabwe's human rights situation. In December 2021, four UN special rapporteurs jointly commented on the potential negative impacts of Zimbabwe's Private Voluntary Organizations Amendment Bill on civil and political rights[3].
4. Human Rights Monitoring: Various international organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, regularly document and report on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe[2][3].
5. Calls for Reform: The international community has repeatedly urged Zimbabwe to implement political reforms, restore the rule of law, and respect fundamental freedoms[1][3].
6. Commonwealth Membership Considerations: Zimbabwe's potential return to the Commonwealth has been scrutinized due to its human rights record, with arguments that the country does not meet the required standards for readmission[4].
7. Advocacy for Investigations: There have been calls for swift, thorough, and credible investigations into specific incidents of human rights violations, such as the abduction and torture of opposition members[2].
8. Criticism of COVID-19 Response: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about allegations that Zimbabwean authorities may be using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to suppress freedoms[2].
Despite these responses, some international actors, such as the African Union chairperson and a UN special rapporteur, have called for the lifting of sanctions, claiming they negatively impact living conditions in Zimbabwe[3]. This highlights the complex and sometimes conflicting approaches within the international community in addressing Zimbabwe's human rights situation.
Citations:
- [1] https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2009/10/council-hears-concerns-about-situation-zimbabwe-it-holds-related-debate
- [2] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/zimbabwe
- [3] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/zimbabwe
- [4] https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/the-commonwealth-zimbabwes-return/
- [5] https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AFR4672212023ENGLISH.pdf
- [6] https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/zimbabwe/
- [7] https://zw.usembassy.gov/2020-human-rights-report-zimbabwe/
- [8] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/zimbabwe-country-of-concern/zimbabwe-country-of-concern
NGOs play a crucial role in documenting and combating human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, despite facing significant challenges and repression from the government. Their key functions include:
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Nick M pontificating for political satire: From the deadly pen of @BhudhiGhivhi
Permanent Secretary Nick Mangwana:
"And so in closing, allow me to end on a moment of frankness.
It has been a long journey.
From mopping the floors of the psych ward in Nottingham, to rising to the heights of permanent secretary of Information, is no easy feat.
It takes a ruthlessness and shamelessness that few possess.
I had to prove myself time and time again, that I was willing to do whatever it takes to sanitize the misdeeds of our great Party. That there was no depth to which I was not willing to stoop.
No matter how low.
It is a unique talent, for which I sometimes feel, honestly, that I don’t get enough credit.
There are many who say that I am unqualified for any type of high level Govt position and that I particularly have no background or skills in Media and Information.
And they are right.
But... I make up for my lack of knowledge and skill, with RUTHLESSNESS.
And that is the quality my party ZANU PF values most of all.
With this job comes the inevitable requirement to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. You have to have broad shoulders.
When one wakes up each morning to lie to an entire nation and whitewash atrocities, one will doubtlessly face colossal and widespread criticism from all quarters. You have to have the ability to shut out logic and consciousness, and focus on the job at hand.
That is where I excel.
I abandoned shame a long time ago. I found it serves no purpose.
When you are in the business of abducting activists, stealing elections and looting state resources, there is no room for shame, or empathy, or mercy.
The less you have of these traits, the bigger your bank account!
So it’s an easy choice.
And in line with this theme, I will close with the inspiring words of Shakespeare’s LADY MACBETH:
‘Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts.
Fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty.
Make thick my blood.
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious vistings of nature shake my fell purpose...
... Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes.’
Thank you.🙇🏾♂️”
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WHO MISAPPROPRIATED OUR GOLD /DIAMOND REVENUE & PROFITS!
What’s the true story behind the Gold/Diamond Corruption? Zimbabwe regime accused of stealing $2bn in diamonds
Report claims that revenue from Marange fields has been channelled into 'parallel government' loyal to Robert Mugabe [2012] Miners dig for diamonds in the Marange fields, Zimbabwe
This article is more than 9 years old: Mon 12 Nov 2012 18.54 GMT
Diamonds worth at least $2bn (£1.26bn) have been stolen by the Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe's ruling elite, international dealers and criminals, in "perhaps the biggest single plunder of diamonds the world has seen since Cecil Rhodes", a watchdog has claimed.
Revenue that could have revived the country's ailing economy has been channelled into a "parallel government" of police and military officers and government officials loyal to Mugabe, according to Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), a group campaigning against "blood diamonds". The Marange fields in eastern Zimbabwe were discovered in 2006 and are one of the world's biggest diamond deposits. But funds from diamond sales have not reached the state treasury, says a PAC report, published on Monday to coincide with a Zimbabwe government conference on the diamond trade in Victoria Falls. Instead there is evidence that millions have gone to Mugabe's inner circle.
"Marange's potential has been overshadowed by violence, smuggling, corruption and most of all, lost opportunity," says PAC.
"The scale of illegality is mind-blowing" and has spread to "compromise most of the diamond markets of the world."
The report, Reap What You Sow: Greed and Corruption in Zimbabwe's Marange Diamond Fields, [Available in Full - click the link] describes the $2bn lost to the Zimbabwean treasury since 2008 as a "conservative estimate".
Tendai Biti, the finance minister, [2012] said in his latest budget he had been promised $600m in diamond revenue for the national treasury to help rebuild neglected hospitals, schools and other public services. Only a quarter of that pledge has been received, he claims.
The PAC names Obert Mpofu, mines minister since 2009 and a key Mugabe ally, as perhaps the biggest winner. He has amassed an unexplained personal fortune and is linked to a "small and tight group of political and military elites who have been in charge of Marange from the very beginning" and who are personally benefiting from the diamond sales, the report alleges.
Mpofu spent more than $20m‚ "mostly in cash"‚ over the past three years, the report says, and owns vast swaths of land. "While Mpofu is not the only Zanu official benefiting from Marange's riches, his role as the chief guardian of Marange raises the most concern," the report says.
Mpofu insists that western economic sanctions [sic] have prevented the government from getting fair prices for the diamonds on the international market. He has repeatedly refused to give exact figures on diamond revenues, the PAC claims.
In 2010 leading industry insiders, including Filip van Laere, a Belgian diamond expert working for the Mugabe government, forecast the country could produce as much as 30m to 40m carats a year, worth about $2bn annually, the PAC report says.
The diamonds are being mined and sold but the funds are not reaching the Zimbabwean treasury, according to the report. Instead they are going to Mugabe's allies, a group of Zimbabwean military generals and foreigners in South Africa, China, Dubai, India and Israel.
Most of the revenue is lost through a lack of transparency in accounting for how many diamonds are mined, how much is earned from their sales, the underpricing of gems on world markets, smuggling and a "high level of collusion" by government officials.
Records show that 10m carats of Marange diamonds were exported to Dubai in late 2012 for $600m, which the report says is half the value it should have been. This "underscores a price manipulation scheme perpetrated by Indian buyers and their Zimbabwe allies, with whom they are believed to share the spoils," the report says.
PAC's researchers were also unable to trace a 2.5m carat stockpile, valued at around $200m, which mysteriously disappeared in November 2011. It charges that $300m in diamond sales never made it to the Zimbabwe treasury in 2011. The report also criticises the Kimberley Process for allowing the misuse of funds to happen. "Calls for greater transparency have been dismissed within the Kimberley Process," it says.
"The lack of transparency surrounding Zimbabwe's diamond revenue is a matter of critical public interest and amplifies concerns for some time that these revenues are funding a parallel government" of Mugabe loyalists, many known to be building private mansions and buying luxury cars costing far in excess of their income from tax-funded salaries, the report adds.
Analysts have warned that the diamond wealth could boost Mugabe's war chest for elections expected next year, giving it a huge advantage over prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change.
Mugabe's Zanu-PF dismissed the report as politically motivated. Rugare Gumbo, a party spokesman, said: "Our view is that PAC is just there to destabilise the situation in southern Africa. The Kimberley Process monitor and other monitors have been here and say it's being done properly. What people don't understand is that we had to bring order to a process that was chaotic." He added: "PAC don't believe we should benefit from the resources of our country. The scapegoat always is President Mugabe because of the regime change agenda.
Mpofu told Voice of America: "I will not dignify those baseless accusations with a response. This is pure madness, rank madness really from a group that is sponsored by countries that do not want to see us benefiting from our diamonds.
"They can continue to talk but we will not look back. Zimbabwe's diamonds are the best and they are hurting that they are not mining in Marange, that's all. We are used to this. They release reports ahead of major conferences and Kimberley plenary sessions but we are not fazed at all
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How is someone like Kembo Mohadi the Vice President of a country? 
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Veteran economist, John Robertson, has said that the Zimbabwean situation has graduated to extreme levels where humanitarian aid is now a necessity. Robertson also said that the government knew what could trigger an economic comeback but had no political will to do so. He said:
Zimbabwe has never looked weaker. Not a single measure taken has earned respect, and the only assistance we qualify for now is humanitarian aid. Government lacks the courage to do the right thing. It is doing only what it thinks it can get away with. John Robertson says the Government has no "political-will" to deal with corruption.
His remarks come when inflation is soaring with prices of basic commodities being raised on a fortnight basis.
The inflation worsens the plight of workers whose salaries have remained fairly stagnant resulting in clashes between the working class and authorities on several occasions.
The opposition MDC led by Nelson Chamisa has also added to the chagrin of the state by organising nationwide demonstrations which were however blocked by the police.
Source: https://news.pindula.co.zw/2019/09/02/zimbabwe-has-never-looked-weaker-veteran-economist
