April 18, 2014 marked the Republic of Zimbabwe’s 34th year of independence. As recently as February, the European Union indicated that they might soon relax sanctions imposed upon the nation. The current sanctions on Zimbabwe by both the European Union and the United States are the result of a long history of human rights abuses and political oppression committed by Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF government since the country gained independence in 1980. This paper will analyze the major human rights concerns committed by the Mugabe regime since 1980, provide context to their occurrence, and explain how Zimbabwe arrived at its current state of affairs and why the European Union would consider lifting their current sanctions.
To fully understand Zimbabwe’s current situation, and the rule of Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF, it is important to first outline their rise to power. Zimbabwe’s independence came fairly late in relation to most other African nations. Furthermore, the current iteration of Zimbabwe won its independence through armed struggle. These two factors are the result of a somewhat unique situation in Zimbabwe’s colonial history. By the late 19th century what is now Zimbabwe came under the control of Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Country. When Rhodes obtained concession over valuable mining areas from the locals he was granted a Royal Charter by the United Kingdom to incorporate all of the territory that now makes up Zambia, Zimbabwe, and parts of Mozambique into the British colony of Rhodesia. Later, the territory south of the Zambezi River would become known as Southern Rhodesia, while the territory north of the Zambezi became Northern Rhodesia.
With the discovery of valuable minerals and mining sites (including diam...
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...reedom and with political freedom many of the human rights issues in Zimbabwe will slowly begin to be relieved. Furthermore, it is hopeful that a free and open political system will lead to an economic recovery for Zimbabwe where one wealthy nation can pull itself back from its despair.
For it to do so, however, will require a massive amount of foreign help. As shown earlier Zimbabwe has rich mineral wealth and it was once referred to as the “breadbasket of Africa.” To ensure that it once again can rise to that status will take protection of the country from the vulture like nature of many of the Western corporate conglomerates who like nothing more than to simply swoop down upon post-sanction Zimbabwe and suck all of its resources out for export to the West. Even more so they would like to do it for the benefit of a small elite in control of the political system.
Images of whiteness in Zimbabwe projected in the media have been of white population as victims being disposed of land and exposed to violence. In the award-winning documentary, Mugabe and the White African, the film focuses on white Zimbabwean family who challenges the Fast Track land redistribution program. David McDermott Hughes’ interprets the perspectives of land and landscape and its origins. In Whiteness in Zimbabwe, David McDermott Hughes principal argument is that European settlers identified themselves with the African landscape rather than with the social characteristics of the native Africans. The importance of landscape to white identity led to the engineering and structural development of the landscape. Hughes contends that the white colonizers used the land, nature and ecology to escape the social problems, to avoid ‘the other’ which in this case was the black Zimbabweans that were sharing the same living space. Through such landscape engineering, the white Zimbabweans believed that they would belong to Zimbabwe and Africa. However, Hugh argues that “by writing themselves to single-mindedly into the landscape, many whites wrote themselves out of society (p. 25).” Furthermore, Hughes argues that this was not a form of racism, but rather escaping the social surrounding to avoid conflict. This concept has led to Hughes to wanting to stop romanticizing of land in order to avoid social issues.
"The wind of change is blowing through this [African] continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it" (Macmillan). This speech, made by the prime minister of England in 1960, highlights the vast changes occurring in Africa at the time. Changes came quickly. Over the next several years, forty-seven African countries attained independence from colonial rule. Many circumstances and events had and were occurring that led to the changes to which he was referring. The decolonization of Africa occurred over time, for a variety of complex reasons, but can be broken down into two major contributing factors: vast changes brought about in the world because of World War II and a growing sense of African nationalism.
According to Thomas Jefferson, all men are created equal with certain unalienable rights. Unalienable rights are rights given to the people by their Creator rather than by government. These rights are inseparable from us and can’t be altered, denied, nullified or taken away by any government, except in extremely rare circumstances in which the government can take action against a particular right as long as it is in favor of the people’s safety. The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America mentions three examples of unalienable rights: “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. I believe these rights, since they are acquired by every human being from the day they are conceived, should always be respected, but being realistic, most of the time, the government intervenes and either diminishes or
...bances began to emerge, and the economy began to drop. Unrest cost many lives, until demands for change were heard and the political system was revised. In 1994, the South African people went to the polls for the first time and held a democratic election in which Nelson Mandela became president. The country of South Africa has made strides in healing their broken country.
Human rights have been a longstanding and important issue that the UN has been addressing since its inception. One particular country of unrest is Serbia, where history has led to some unpleasant political situations and, as a result, severe human rights issue have arisen. Serbia – landlocked between Bosnia and Herzegovina on the West and Romania on the East – is a historically complex and very new country. Serbia only became separate from Moldova and Kosovo as recently as 2006 and 2008 respectively. Constant political distress has proven difficult to maintain an appropriate human rights code without high degrees of exploitation, especially during the breakup of Yugoslavia. It is the various human rights issues in Serbia that will be examined in this paper, looking to the UN for support and to head in the right direction.
Unfortunately this statement of the international human rights law stays in theory most of the time. In practise some people see themselves as freer and superior to others and treat people according to this kind of attitude. Therefore, millions of people struggle with discrimination almost in every turn in their daily lives. They fight against discrimination to have a peaceful life, and to do this they form organizations or they attempt to international organization’ specialized human rights offices which are supported by governments, institutions or individuals. In this sense, as a powerful and leading organization United Nations has the biggest role to deal with this issue of discrimination. Starting on human Rights day 2009, and continuing next year 2010 the UN human rights office draws special attention to the discrimination issue. Like all other international organizations which focus on human rights and violence against it, the UN human rights office’s purpose is to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights in the dignity and worth of the human rights without considering people’s race, language, sex, religion or any other features. However, sadly, millions of people get hurt due to their differences of skin colour, sexual orientation, nations, disabilities, gender identity and so on -this list can be varied in the proportion of people’s narrow mindedness. In this essay of mine, I will mainly focus on the discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and international organizations’ role in this subject, especially the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that works under the United Nations.
Wemmers (1996) highlights that an effective criminal justice system also protects human rights. Victims are gradually being seen as the notable possessors of such rights that lead to reviews in our domestic system and also by international bodies. The protection of said rights, such as in South Africa where less express definitions between ‘victim’ and ‘human’ rights are being made by policy m...
A dictator is defined as simply as “a ruler who wields absolute authority.” Absolute authority over a countries’ actions, people, and rules essentially feels harmless, but over time, this authority becomes continuously aggressive. In two completely different countries, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Vladimir Putin of Russia both establish, maintain, and secure their power quite strategically. Dictatorships can essentially begin with a leader who holds good intentions, but with the call to complete power, the idea of doing “good” ultimately transforms into the abuse of power, leading into the extreme measures certain leaders take in order to maintain their moment in the spotlight.
Dr. Noah Zerbe is a professor and chair of the department of politics at Humboldt State University in California and someone who has spent time in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. Dr. Zerbe goes in depth into the factors that surrounded the 2002 famine in Africa, where 14 million Africans were on the brink of starvation. The Malawi president, just a season before the famine, sold off all of Mal...
Freedom of expression, association, and assembly are all taken for granted in America, but in Ethiopia, these basic rights are denied and restricted; and the end result of trying to fight for it is arbitrary arrests, detentions, and beatings from the Ethiopian authorities. Almost all of the human rights groups have been removed and a number of organizations have been closed entirely. More journalists have fled Ethiopia than any other country due to the threats and intimidation. This violation of basic human rights should not be tolerated and is important because it is causing innocent people to receive beatings and be arrested, for having their own thoughts; they are also fleeing the country just due to fear. I believe people should not be scared to speak their mind or state their opinion without concern of being targeted.
Ampim, Manu Prof. “Great Zimbabwe: A History Almost Forgotten.” Manuampim.com. n.p. May 2004. Web. 7 Mar. 2014. http://www.manuampim.com/ZIMBABWE.html.
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