Calls for evictions and displacements policy

Nohlelo Mlilo, Sunday News Reporter
A TOTAL of 16 Community Based Organisations (CBOs) have endorsed a policy submission paper calling on the Government to enact an inclusive and human rights based development-induced evictions and displacements

Compensation and Relocation Framework.

The 16 CBOs are from across the country representing various ethnic, linguistic and geographic minority communities.

Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights (MIHR) has since 2021 been coordinating conversations and research among various communities of Zimbabwe that are affected by development-induced evictions/displacements (DiEDs).

The organisation has convened a National Ethnic and Linguistic Minorities Convening Indaba which was a solidarity platform for the various Zimbabwean communities affected by DiEDs.

The Convening Indaba was also attended by representatives from the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC), the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC), the Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC), and Bulawayo Central Member of Parliament Nicola Watson.

“The Submission Paper recommended that the Government enact an inclusive and human rights-based approach Compensation and Relocations Framework to guide the compensation of development-induced evictions and displacements.”

The report also noted that the relocation framework must be conform to national and internationally recognised standards and principles such as free, prior and informed consent, gender equity and equality, conflict sensitivity, loss of income, live hoods and resilience mechanisms, and rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities.