Zimbabwe: Women up the pressure in Constitutional Review

Pressure is mounting for the incorporation of substantive clauses on gender equality in the constitutional review process underway in Zimbabwe.

The Constitution Select Committee of Parliament (COPAC) leads the country’s current constitution-making process, as set out in the 2008 Global Political Agreement (GPA). The process started with Outreach meetings in 2009/2010 to gather the views and expressions of women and men across the country on what they wanted included in the country’s supreme law.

The Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCOZ), an umbrella membership organization of women’s organizations across the country and the “Group of 20À lobbying group have actively engaged in the current constitution-making process to push for general principles on substantive gender equality. Special interest groups, such as People Living with Disabilities also have participated in the COPAC process to broaden the rights of disabled women and men.

The Group of 20
The Group of 20 (G-20) is a strategic coalition of women lobbying to ensure that Zimbabwe’s new Constitution delivers on gender equality and empowerment for women citizens.

Launched in April 2012 at an event attended by more than 200 women from across the country, the G-20 comprises members of the Zimbabwe women’s parliamentary caucus, academics, gender equality and women’s rights activists, representatives from the national machinery, the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development and from the COPAC Select Committee.

Chair of the G-20 and Member of Parliament B. Nyamupinga said the role of the G20  is to “monitor the current constitution-making process in Zimbabwe on behalf of the nation’s women.À

“Women are 52% of the population in Zimbabwe, and since all women cannot be involved in the constitutional-making process, the G-20 was started to ensure that women’s issues are enshrined in the new Constitution,À added Nyamupinga who also is the chair of the Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus.  ÀThe G-20 monitors the constitutional-making process 24/7 so that the train does not leave women behind.À

Providing a link and feedback mechanism between women constituencies and the constitutional drafters has been a major focus of the G-20’s lobbying strategy. It also has formulated the expressions of women and men across the country during the COPAC Outreach meetings in 2009/2010 into a set of gender equality and women’s rights principles and demands to be included in the draft Constitution.

Context
Like most other African countries, Zimbabwe has a dual legal system with customary law operating alongside general law. Zimbabwe’s current Constitution dates back to the peace settlement to mark the end of British colonial rule in 1979. Since then there have been several amendments, but only two referred to gender equality. The 14th amendment introduced gender as grounds for non-discrimination to Section 23 of the Constitution, which is the non-discriminatory clause. Later in 2005, Constitutional Amendment 17 added further grounds for non-discrimination to include sex, pregnancy and disability.

However, the greatest pitfall in the Zimbabwean Constitution is the claw back clauses to be found in the non-discriminatory clause, which still allows for discrimination under customary law. Zimbabwe’s Constitution is currently being reviewed with a view to elections being held later this year or early 2013 as per the Global Peace Agreement. As Zimbabwe has both signed and ratified the SADC Gender Protocol, this opens the possibility for Zimbabwe to incorporate its provisions.

The inter-active dialogue at the Human Rights Council Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva (October 2011) put forward several recommendations. These called for the government to take measures to align customary laws with international human rights instruments that it is party to, to ensure harmonisation with the protections guaranteed in the Constitution. The recommendations also called on Zimbabwe to elaborate and implement where gaps exist, legislative and administrative measures to outlaw discrimination against women; and to enforce relevant national policies and legislation to prevent the marginalisation and exclusion of women from the political, social and economic spheres.

The Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA), a member of WCOZ and the Group of 20, highlights “Ten reasons why Zimbabwean women need a New ConstitutionÀ closely aligned to key provisions of the SADC Gender Protocol.

Table 1.3. How Group of 20 demands align to the SADC Gender Protocol

Source: 2012 Zimbabwe SADC Gender Protocol Barometer À“ analysis done by Gender Links

Following the first draft of the proposed Constitution in May 2012, ZWALA and the G-20 conducted a detailed gender audit of the draft to identify areas for further lobbying before the stakeholders meeting and referendum in 2012. The plan is to develop an information, education and communications campaign to dialogue and build broader support with women nationwide.

Scoring a goal for gender equality in the Draft Constitution
The “unofficialÀ Constitutional Draft published on May 2, 2012 in several of the country’s major newspapers included several of the Group of 20 demands. For example the draft:

• Provides for affirmative action to promote equality and remedy past discrimination.
• Invalidates customary laws and practices that infringe on women’s rights.
• Gives government the obligation to prevent domestic violence and provides individual right to freedom from private violence.
• Provides for equal pay/equal work, equality in promotion, paid maternity leave and measures including family care to facilitate women’s work.
• Provides for equality in marriage and guardianship of children.
• Provides for basic social and economic rights À“ shelter, food, water, education and health care.
• Establishes a Constitutional Court and Gender Commission.
• Provides for the domestication of international conventions on gender.
• Includes provisions for gender balance in distribution of agricultural land, gender balance on a Land Commission, and for the adoption of affirmative action measures to ensure women have equal opportunities in development

A major area of concern is that there is no detailed quota mechanism for achieving gender parity in Parliament and governance structures. The draft states2:

• Women in Parliament: Women shall be half of the Assembly and nearly half of Senate (procedure to be spelled out in legislation) so long as practicable.
• Women in other areas of governance: Promotion of gender balance in the civil service, public appointments committees and independent commissions.

Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association, 2012
2 Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association, 2012; May 2012 media published version of first Draft of the proposed