UN Human Rights in Zimbabwe

Profile

The Human Rights Adviser supports the Resident Coordinator and UN Country Team (UNCT) in mainstreaming human rights into their programmes and activities; provides technical advice and facilitates engagement with UN human rights bodies; and responds to human rights capacity building needs of Government Institutions and civil society organisations.

Achievements

• In collaboration with the UN Country Team (UNCT), OHCHR, through training and technical advice, contributed to strengthening the capacity of the national reporting mechanism – the Zimbabwe Inter-Ministerial Committee on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law – to report and follow up on recommendations from human rights mechanisms.
• OHCHR supported the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission through provision of training for its Commissioners and staff on engagement with international human rights mechanisms, complaints handling, monitoring places of detention, business and human rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. As a result in 2016, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Commissions accredited the Commission with an ‘A’ status.
• With the support of the UN Resident Coordinator, OHCHR successfully established the position of a Human Rights Adviser in his office.
• The UNCT and OHCHR provided technical support to strengthen the monitoring and reporting capacity of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission during the 2018 electoral process.
• As a result of consistent advocacy, Zimbabwe for the first time issued invitations to six UN Special Mechanisms to visit the country.
• Increased engagement of the Resident Coordinator and Human Rights Adviser in support of civil society organisations’ advocacy work for the promotion and protection of human rights in the country and engagement with UN human rights bodies and mechanisms.
• OHCHR provided support on the inclusion of a human rights-based approach into the programming and activities of the UNCT in Zimbabwe and contributed to the integration of human rights concepts into the Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF)as well as facilitated the UNCT’s increased engagement with UN human rights bodies and mechanisms.

Partners

Partners: UN agencies, international and regional organisations, Government of Zimbabwe, national human rights and protection institutions (Chapter 12 Institutions), legislature, security forces, law enforcement and judiciary, civil society organisations.

UN Human Rights Focus Areas

Last reviewed: October 2019