Citizen participation in national affairs is one of the key tenets of democratic governance. Engaging citizens in governance processes engenders transparency, improves accountability, reduces corruption and brings about good policy outcomes, development and the social well-being of citizens. As knowledge and awareness are foundational to citizen participation, the Constitution of Zimbabwe, in its section 7 enjoins the State
“to encourage all persons and organisations, including civic organisations to disseminate awareness and knowledge of the Constitution throughout society”. The Constitution in, section 243 (1), further enjoins the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) “to promote awareness of and respect for human rights and freedoms at all levels of society”.
As further observed in Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy 1 (2021-2025) (NDS1), there has been low citizen participation in democratic and governance processes as a result of inadequate financial support to key institutions responsible for ensuring good governance, rule of law and protection and promotion of human rights.
Guided by the above key constitutional provisions and the objectives and developmental aspirations espoused in NDS 1, the ZHRC, with support from Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, has been conducting human rights awareness outreach activities with the objective of contributing towards addressing some of the human rights challenges affecting the Zimbabwean society. The outreaches focus on national civil registration documents, promoting awareness among communities of the importance of acquiring national civil registration documents as well as promoting awareness of other human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution’s Declaration of Rights.
Most of the awareness raising and outreach activities were carried out at the subnational level in marginalised communities in selected districts across different provinces, including Mashonaland East, Manicaland, Masvingo and Matebeleland South. This approach dovetails with the Government’s inclusivity policy position of “Leaving No One and No Place Behind”. The activities increased people’s knowledge and understanding of the Constitution especially the bill of rights and enhanced public participation and engagement regarding the importance of access to national civil registration documents. More than thirty (30) awareness outreaches were carried out between 2022 and 2023 with more than 30 000 people having been reached out to, participated and benefited from these awareness raising activities. The activities served as important dialogue and learning platforms for members of the public to interact with duty bearers from the Civil Registry Department (CRD), the Department of Social Development, the school heads and highlight the challenges affecting access to national civil registration documents. The outreaches further provided ZHRC with an opportunity to interact and engage with grassroots communities and duty bearers at local and ward levels who many a time are left out and not consulted in human rights and governance issues that affect them at the macro level.
Through these activities ZHRC observed that participants exhibited a general understanding of human rights issues regarding access to national civil documents as evidenced by their proactive engagement regarding the challenges of accessing these registration documents. For example, participants in these communities urged ZHRC to continuously engage with the relevant authorities to facilitate relaxation of more registration requirements as some people in the communities were still facing access to documentation challenges. Further, participants were appreciative of the work of ZHRC in this area, commending that the CRD had relaxed some of the stringent requirements for registration such as the need for police screening of fingerprints for new registrants above 18 years, the need for registration fees and or penalties for late registrants as well as the need for physical presence of parents for children born in neighbouring countries. These relaxations were all in line with the recommendations from ZHRC. The engagement platforms further helped ZHRC to assess progress on implementation of its National Inquiry on Access to Registration Documents of 2020.
The implementation of these activities was made possible through financial support from the European Commission under its “Support to the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission” Action administered by RWI.