adminSharon Hofisi Legal Letters
This article focuses on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) as a national institution which can promote transitional justice in Zimbabwe. Transitional justice includes non-judicial approaches and the ZHRC fits in that description.
A human rights dimension to transitional justice is steeped in the need to create a culture of fostering such rights. A peace-and-reconciliation approach under the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission can be complemented by the five institutions supporting democracy.
The central argument posed in this article is that: of all national institutions which serve as part of the democratisation process, it is doubtlessly human rights institutions which have awakened the most global interest and influence; yet very little, if no nuanced research has been done to critically unpack their role in entrenching human rights and promoting transitional justice in nations that wrestle with a harrowing past.
A society with human rights blisters from head to sore must systematically and cautiously investigate, monitor and combat impunity through independent mechanisms which must emancipate, empower and heal embittered souls.
Whether this is made through legislative, judicial or non-judicial means, independent institutions are the ultimate setting for constructive and anaesthetic engagements between victims and perpetrators of gruesome violations.
Positioned in this institutional arrangement are national human rights institutions (NHRIs), which are one of the only national institutions with direct legislative or constitutional mandate to uphold the four duties to protect, promote, respect, and fulfil human rights.
These duties are laid down in Section 44 of the Constitution.
And, with the international community having entrenched this role in soft international law and supranational instruments such as the Paris Principles, not only do nations have human rights watchdogs at their doorstep, but also the epitome of effective transitional justice mechanisms at their citizens’ hearts.
Powered by broad and specific constitutional mandates, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) for instance is one of Zimbabwe’s important players in transitional justice.
It can be useful in promoting vertical accountability on the part of State functionaries and horizontal accountability on the part of the citizens.
The Government functionaries and citizens can use ZHRC to dialogue together, meaningfully.
What can researchers do in this regard?
When constructive minds and engaging souls meet and opportunities for new horizons of achieving lasting peace such as NHRIs present themselves, it is obligatory that a new generation of researchers must invest its energy in benchmarking their capacity to shape the healing and truth-telling discourse on causes and potential solutions to past wounds.
In this way, NHRIs are considered to be one of the faster and less bureaucratic ways to build strong communities and nations through needs-based and human rights-oriented approaches.
The Paris Principles on the Status of National Institutions, (Paris Principles), 1993, simplify the institutional capabilities of NHRIs which enables them to be responsive and to pro-actively lead the way through the implementation of various transitional justice strategies aimed at meeting the victims’ needs and expectations.
This in turn ensures that the most effective protection and promotion of human rights are offered in that alleged perpetrators are identified and most importantly, victims benefit from access to a national platform for psychological healing.
Essentially, the Paris Principles reflect a normative and value-coherent approach to transitional justice and their content inform the normative theory that is preferred in this thesis.
The principles are also considered part of the emerging soft sources of international law, which urge states to establish independent, accountable and effective institutions that can promote transitional justice.
This is important in developing the jurisprudence on international human rights law.
The Paris Principles are augmented by various principles such as the Bangalore Principles and Latimer House Principles on separation of powers.
Characteristically therefore, NHRIs such as the ZHRC must comply with these principles.
Put differently, institutions such as the ZHRC that are compliant with the Paris Principles and enjoy the fullest degree of formal and public legitimacy.
The ZHRC’s “A” status must encourage it to focus on the broad provisions in the Constitution which bind all institutions supporting democracy.
The logical corollary to this is that they also enjoy the fullest degree of independence compatible with the normative structure, so great a degree that the Government and civil society, at a midline level, can largely accept their role in supporting democracy.
The gains of institutional autonomy on the part of NHRIs are clearest in countries such as Uganda and South Africa, where the NHRIs have been fundamentally visible and have promoted a sustainable culture of accountability for human rights violations.
Faced with limp democratic growth, Zimbabwe can also take a leaf from important developments in various countries across the globe, some of which have been recorded in the United Nations Guide Note on National Human Rights Institutions.
The Guide Note affirms at a supranational level that independent commissions play a significant role in transitional justice initiatives.
ZHRC needs to benchmark its activities at micro and macro levels with a view to establishing its niche as a mechanism for transitional justice in Zimbabwe.
That most governments in Africa and the rest of the world have moved to entrench the roles of NHRIs in their national constitutions is self-evident.
Even Zimbabwe’s young Constitution situates the ZHRC within the constitutional infrastructure of “independent commissions supporting democracy”.
From a human rights perspective, the commissions are very important for Zimbabwe’s reputation on the human rights scoreboard because through them, Zimbabwe avoids the co-conspirator label in human rights violations.
Regrettably, the institution which must be serving as the torch-bearer in transitional justice, the National Peace and Healing Commission (NPRC) allows the clock to tick while various constitutional breaches are being committed.
The ZHRC can go a long way in ending the culture of impunity using the “normative” boost in the form of the broad and specific protective mandates that are found in the new Constitution of Zimbabwe,
Online Reporter