Amnesty International says President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has failed to live up to its promises for change and break with the late former President Robert Mugabe’s brutal human rights legacy.
In its latest human rights report, Amnesty International said Mnangagwa followed Mugabe’s steps in misusing laws as instruments of oppression resulting in the shrinking of civic space and serious human rights violations.
Amnesty International found that individuals who speak out or organize protests often face persecution. In some cases, it said, relatives of protesters have been targeted and harassed as a way of intimidating activists. Abduction of human rights defenders and activists has also been on the rise, according to the human rights group.
Khanyo Farisè, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southern Africa, is quoted in the report as saying, “The Mnangagwa administration has lost a historic opportunity to right the wrongs of the past and, instead, has ramped up efforts to suppress human rights.
“The cyclical nature of violence will continue until there is genuine political will to uphold human rights and end impunity. The Zimbabwean government must make genuine efforts to deal with the past injustices to ensure that history does not repeat itself.”
The rights organization called on Harare “to uphold and adhere to the 2013 Constitution and the country’s international human rights obligations, and ensure that the values and principles, and the human rights they enshrine are effectively respected, protected, promoted, and fulfilled.”
It also urged regional heads of state from Southern African Development Community and the African Union to “play their part in ensuring human rights are a reality for all in Zimbabwe,” and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to investigate reports of human rights violations in Zimbabwe.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa told the United Nations General Assembly last week that Zimbabwe held free, fair, credible and transparent elections last month.
He attacked the West saying they should remove targeted sanctions imposed on Zanu PF officials over alleged human rights violations and election rigging.
But Amnesty International says Mnangagwa has made empty promises since he toppled Mugabe in a military coup in 2017.