Kubatana! Get Up. Stand Up in Harare to mark International Human Rights Day. Join Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights on Thursday 8th. Meet 12:30 at High Court. Sharp!

C.E.E. (Climate Economic Empowerment)
By Comrade Fatso

Comrades I’m sure you’ve heard of the crisis in the world today
Floods in France, disappearing islands and droughts in Zimbabwe
How do we deal with all our carbon emissions rising
With global warming, increased instability and insane petrol pricing
Comrades I would like to announce my brand new policy
I call this policy C…E…E…
Its simply entitled Climate Economic Empowerment
How to make money from mother nature and from the environment
Because climate is the new bling
The new diamonds, the new shiny, spangly thing
We’ve run out of ways to make money for a living
But, comrades, now we have carbon markets and carbon trading
So will we save the planet? Hell muthafukking no!
But we’ll have the biggest, most fantastic party til we hit ground zero
So lets co-opt the NGO’s and some scholarly scholars
Coz we wanna go green like freshly minted US dollars
So in that sense yes we are the real green party
Because nature is time and time is money
So give us your money and give it to us by the tonne
Put it in my bank account – it’s called the Green Climate Fund!

As fear and repression mount in Zimbabwe because of Zanu PF’s pre-election jitters, what we don’t need is individuals and organisations forwarding unverified information.

Kubatana received this email from various sources about five times:

TALKING ON A CELLPHONE WHILE DRIVING
This is a update to warn all motorists that you will no longer be fined or given community service, if you are caught talking on your cell phone whilst driving.  Replacing the fine and community service is now JAIL.  You will be arrested and taken to Court, you will then be sentenced to between 2-3 weeks in jail, that is now the sentence, you will now have a conviction and a Police Record.  Please avoid using your cellphone when driving, as there is not monetary fine it is straight to Court.

To ascertain whether this information had any validity we contacted the Legal Resources Foundation who replied:

I was just talking to the LDC (Law Development Commission) Chairperson who categorically stated that as of Friday there was no such change in the law. It could be the Police deciding that they will not fine people but take them to court as a way of deterring cell phone use while driving BUT this is not to mean the law has changed.

Hitting the forward key is much easier than taking the time to verify information but its critical.

Read the latest statement from the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) about the continued police harassment of their staff:

MMPZ Director Andrew Moyse taken for questioning by CID Law and Order Harare

MMPZ Project Coordinator Andrew Moyse was this morning (at about 1130hrs) picked up from the organisation’s offices by a team of five police officers from Harare’s Law and Order Section led by Detective Assistant Inspector Phiri. The officers were armed with a search warrant and proceeded to search MMPZ offices for “material which comprises of compact disks containing Gukurahundi information”. In terms of the search warrant, the police purport that they have reasonable grounds to believe that MMPZ officers may have acted in breach of section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, that is, “publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the state”.

Pursuant to the search warrant, the police then took possession of 127 DVDs produced by MMPZ essentially calling upon the media to contribute to peaceful elections through fair, accurate and balanced coverage of election campaigns by Zimbabwean political parties. Whilst the police officers indicated that Andrew was not formally under arrest, MMPZ is concerned that the police may detain him to investigate a matter whose circumstances and gravity do not at all warrant pre-trial detention. MMPZ urges the police to grant Andrew Moyse all his pre-trial rights and not to harm his physical and psychological person for the entire period he is in their custody.

In the meantime, MMPZ advocacy officers Fadzai December and Molly Chimhanda, and MMPZ’s Public Information Rights Committee chairman for Gwanda Mr Gilbert Mabusa remain in police custody at Gwanda police station. They are being charged under POSA for failing to give notice of a meeting and also under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for “participating in gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry”.

MMPZ vigorously denies the allegations in both cases.

The Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) issued this statement today:

MMPZ advocacy officers Fadzai December and Molly Chimhanda have been detained by Zimbabwe Republic Police in Gwanda in connection with a civic education meeting they facilitated in the town two weeks ago on the 24th November 2011. Also detained in connection with the same case is the chairperson of MMPZ’S Public Information Rights Forum Committee for Gwanda Mr Gilbert Mabusa. They are being charged under POSA for failing to give notice of the meeting despite the fact that the meeting was convened by the membership of MMPZ’s Public Information Rights Forum Committee for Gwanda and was therefore not a public meeting as contemplated under POSA. They are also being charged in terms of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for “participating in gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry”. The Gwanda police authorities allege that the MMPZ advocacy officers distributed illegal material in the form of a DVD MMPZ produced essentially calling upon the media to contribute to peaceful elections through fair, accurate and balanced coverage of election campaigns by Zimbabwean political parties.

While MMPZ respects the necessity of the due process of the law, it is MMPZ’s view that this case does not warrant the pre-trial detention of its advocacy officers and Mr Mabusa. They are not remotely a flight risk as MMPZ’s officers have fully cooperated with the police and returned to Gwanda from Harare yesterday to assist the police in their inquiries. The Zimbabwean Constitution protects the right to personal liberty. Depriving an individual of their personal liberty should be an action of last resort. It should not be employed as a first option especially in cases whose circumstances do not warrant pre-trial detention. MMPZ therefore calls upon the police to release Gilbert, Fadzai and Molly from custody forthwith as their attendance at court can be secured by way of summons.

The World AIDS Day umbrella theme until 2015 is “Getting to Zero – Zero New HIV Infections. Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS Related Deaths”. UNAIDS has developed 10 strategy goals by 2015 in relation to the Getting to Zero campaign, and these are listed below:

1.Sexual transmission of HIV reduced by half, including among young people, men who have sex with men and transmission in the context of sex work
2.Vertical transmission of HIV eliminated, and AIDS-related maternal mortality reduced by half
3.All new HIV infections prevented among people who use drugs
4.Universal access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV who are eligible for treatment
5.TB deaths among people living with HIV reduced by half
6.People living with HIV and households affected by HIV are addressed in all national social protection strategies and have access to essential care and support
7.Countries with punitive laws and practices around HIV transmission, sex work, drug use or homosexuality that block effective responses reduced by half
8.HIV-related restrictions on entry, stay and residence eliminated in half of the countries that have such restrictions
9.HIV-specific needs of women and girls are addressed in at least half of all national HIV responses
10.Zero tolerance for gender-based violence

(http://www.unaids.org/en/aboutunaids/unaidsstrategygoalsby2015/ )

This year’s World AIDS Day was barely over when I read an article about a South African journalist detained in, and deported from Qatar due to his HIV-positive status.

Naturally this news report brought up numerous questions. Even though I knew that some countries have visa restrictions for HIV/AIDS, I did not realise the extent of these restrictions, and the lengths to which and procedures some countries followed in order to enforce these rules.

Including Qatar, 47 countries worldwide have the HIV restrictions mentioned in UNAIDS strategy goals. Restricting the travel of people who are HIV positive is a measure these countries have taken to curb the spread of AIDS. Up until recently, the USA and China were among the countries that listed having HIV as a medical basis for inadmissibility and denial of visas.

I have tried to think of the reasons behind these prohibitions. It seems a logical move, I guess. Almost like the reverse of quarantine. The separation of infected people as an emergency response to prevent the spread of disease (especially those about which little is known) has been practiced throughout history, the world over, and in theory, should be quite effective in preventing the spread of HIV. But … I don’t think so!

We now know a whole lot more than we did in the 80s and 90s about the nature of HIV/AIDS and there is therefore no need for such draconian restrictions, which I feel do little more than fuel the fires of stigma and further marginalize people living with HIV in an age when openness about the disease is being encouraged and treatment is mostly readily available.

The world has become a global village and it is now not unheard of that nationals from one side of the globe, travel and even work on the other side of it. What has happened to this South African journalist is a harsh reminder of how bad the situation currently is and how much work still needs to be done on the issue. As UNAIDS continues in its call for the “global freedom of movement for people living with HIV”, I’m wondering how they might help this victim of discrimination and ill treatment due to HIV-positive status, and maybe use this issue as a platform to effect change and shed light on HIV discrimination and stigma?