There’s this thing going on in Zimbabwe at the moment where the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been, for reasons best known to itself, brokering meetings between civil society organisations and the Government of Zimbabwe to discuss the establishment of a Zimbabwe National Human Rights Commission.

In response to this initiative, a few civic and human rights organisations have asked, “are you mad?” – you want us to speak with a Government that brutally suppresses freedom of assembly and expression? A Government that displaced 700 000 people during a mass eviction campaign in 2005.

And a Government that, as recently as September 2006, sanctioned the brutal assault of trade union and political activists in Harare. You can watch footage of these assaults here.

And adding insult to already massive injury, the Government of Zimbabwe refused to meet with civil society for these discussions on the establishment of a national human rights commission if the national Gay and Lesbian organisation (GALZ) participated. But instead of civil society taking a united stand and demanding full inclusion, some civil society organisations still believe it reasonable and strategic to meet with the Government of Zimbabwe and the UNDP to discuss “human rights”.

The issue of the establishment of a national human rights commission is being debated on an email discussion list. My fellow civic activists didn’t feel that my last contribution was worthy of response. I said

I agree that not all civil society organisations/NGOs will necessarily sing from the same hymn book. However I do believe that there are some issues which need a very solid and common position. For example, the rejection of GALZ cannot be accepted or condoned. Surely civil society must speak with a single voice, especially on the issue of who gets the “nod” to participate in deliberations on the establishment of a national human rights commission: human rights are indivisible. If the Government doesn’t like GALZ, where does the rot stop? What if they don’t like MMPZ, or a commercial sex worker group or WOZA?

And this reminds me of a passage in the book Fences and Windows by Naomi Klein where Subcomandante Marcos says that a Zapatista is anyone anywhere fighting injustice, that “we are you”. He told a reporter that

Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gyspy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10 p.m., a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.

This entry was posted on October 24th, 2006 at 8:09 am by Bev Clark and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.