Review
previous electronic activism
campaigns and home pages
Between
a rock and a hard place ~
women human rights defenders at risk
Amnesty International’s
recent report Between a rock
and a hard place – women human rights defenders at risk
provides a powerful, moving account of the range of issues faced
by women human rights defenders in Zimbabwe.
Through a combination
of case studies, statistics, narrative, testimonials and photographs,
Amnesty takes on some of the high profile instances where such women
have been harassed, attacked and brutalised by the state, particularly
since 2005. It recounts how Women of Zimbabwe Arise members with
small children have been arrested and detained overnight, their
babies also kept in custody. In November 2006, “police in
Bulawayo used excessive force to disperse over 200 WOZA members
participating in a peaceful protest . . . Among the injured were
a woman and baby, both of whom suffered broken legs.”
It discusses
the September 2006 ZCTU demonstration and the attack on trade union
activists including ZCTU first Vice President Lucia Matibenga in
detention, in which her eardrum was perforated. With vivid pictures,
it describes the 11 March Save Zimbabwe rally in which Sekai Holland
and Grace Kwinjeh, among others, were repeatedly beaten while in
police custody, which resulted in them being hospitalised for weeks
and eventually seeking medical treatment outside the country.
But importantly,
beyond these high profile accounts, the report describes human rights
violations and defence at a much more basic, local level.
There are a
host of ways in which human rights are lived, defended and violated
each day - outside the realm of politics, laws, or elections around
which so many human rights activists frame their debate. There are
human rights issues in simply surviving in our current economy -
the right to food, the right to water, to health, to shelter and
other basic human rights which are confronted in the course of day-to-day
activities by women struggling to provide for themselves and their
families.
The report uses
moving personal stories to convey these struggles – the ways
in which women were disproportionately affected by Operation Murambatsvina,
the human rights concerns around access to food and housing, and
the vulnerability of female headed houses to food insecurity.
In conjunction
with the report, Amnesty urging appeals to the Chairperson of the
African Union and the Southern African Development Community to
call on the government of Zimbabwe to end human rights violations
in Zimbabwe. Visit their webaction
page to find out more.
Visit the Amnesty
website to access audio material available to listen to and
download, including testimonies with women human rights defenders.
There is also a short video you can watch, using footage from the
Solidarity Peace Trust.
If you can,
download this information and share it with others who might not
be able to access it directly.
Be a human rights
defender and get involved in building a better Zimbabwe. Contact
these groups to find out what you can do:
Women
/ Men of Zimbabwe Arise
National Constitutional Assembly
Combined Harare Residents Association
Or check out
these resources to start or strengthen your own activities tacking
the issues in your neighbourhood:
Eight
Steps to Strategic Advocacy
Direct Action
Affinity Groups
TOP
|
