‘Vote / select ‘ the article you would like to write a blog about for International Human Rights Day on the 10th December. The full Declaration of Human Rights is here - a little more detail may be useful in helping you to decide.

When you have ‘voted’, please then COMPLETE THIS FORM here to let us know and to tell us which article you want to write on.

Note - this is not a ‘proper’ poll: the votes here function as a guide to everyone else to indicate the number of people who want to write on a particular article. Once we have received enough formal offers via our form here to write on a particular article, we will delete it from poll.

If it looks to you as if lots of people want to write on one of the articles, please consider choosing another so we have a wide spread of blogs.

More details to follow!

Thank you!

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It’ll be the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the 10th December. It’s a milestone year for such an important declaration.

We are inviting you to write a blog for that day, and we will post them up here  on the 10th of December in a day of intensive blogging. To keep it focused, we ask that you choose one of the articles in the Declaration of Human Rights Declaration, and write about that article and its relation to Zimbabwe. (more…)

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Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore,

The General Assembly,

Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11

1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17

1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

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Via APA:

The Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s Tribunal on Friday dealt a blow to the Zimbabwe government’s violent land reform programme, saying the move was racially motivated and in violation of the country’s international treaties to the rule of law and respect of human rights.

Delivering judgement in the Zimbabwe land case, the five-judge panel of the tribunal also ordered cash strapped Harare to pay compensation to white commercial farmers whose properties, including land, were expropriated by the state by June 30 2009.

(more…)

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The letter written by Thabo Mbeki in his capacity as Facilitator of the Zimbabwe talks, to Morgan Tsvangirai, President of the MDC (T) is now out in the public domain. (We have made it available above to read as an image - click to enlarge - or to download as a pdf document at the end of this post). The letter sent to Thabo Mbeki by the Hon Tendai Biti has been added to the end of this post.

At first reading there will be many who will nod their heads in agreement with Mbeki’s accusations that Tsvangirai is delaying the process of helping to stem the tide of the humanitarian catastrophe that is already drowning so many of our innocent citizens. However, this letter has also worked to once again divert blame. (more…)

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It seems as though most of the people I am coming across are not even aware that the power negotiation talks resumed in South Africa. Everybody is now concentrating on living in a fast-collapsing economy.

Talk in Harare’s streets is of the deadly cholera outbreak that is decimating the urban populace.

A relation of mine lost a business associate of his who resided in Budiriro. The man first complained of severe stomach cramps before he began suffering from massive diarrhea and vomiting. He lost his life within 6 hours, leaving a wife and family to whom he was breadwinner. (more…)

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A historic judgement on an application by Zimbabwean commercial farmer Mike Campbell against the seizure of his land by the Mugabe government will be delivered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal in Windhoek, Namibia, on Friday 28 November at 09h30.

The Tribunal was launched in 2005 as the court of last appeal within the region where SADC citizens would be able to go should justice not prevail in their own countries.

In December 2007, the Tribunal ruled that Campbell should be given protection on his Mount Carmel farm until the main matter could be finalised.

During March this year, 77 other farmers and their workers were given protection along with Campbell. However, this ruling has not been respected by the Zimbabwean government. (more…)

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The majority of the votes - 34% - went to working on ‘targeted sanctions busting’ projects, closely folowed by 30% of the votes going towards projects that provide practical support to Zimbabweans.

The working forum is now open, and those who registered to participate in the working group have been sent access details. We’ll report back on their progress, and we wish them very good luck!

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We are hearing that in the rural community of Kotwa, residents are mobilising food in the form of grain, goats, chickens and anything a person can offer to give to medical personnel at Kotwa Hospital in an effort to make them stay on the job and continue rendering their services.

This comes at a time when the country’s health system has collapsed to the current administration’s failure to prioritize the health sector that has led to massive shortages of medical supplies and desertion en masse of the medical profession by doctors, nurses and various other critical medical personnel.

The villagers themselves are struggling to source food to survive, so these efforts reflect their level of extreme desperation.

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The day before yesterday it was the government’s Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) who refused to take my cheque.

Today, it is the government’s telephone communications company ‘Tel-One’ that refused to take my cheque. Tel-one are still accepting cheques but what happened is I multiplied the balance due on by account x10 and paid a huge credit to Tel-One. This is not acceptable and my cheque was rejected. (more…)

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The people of Zimbabwe urgently need the help of the whole world to stop the impending famine and plague. The people of Zimbabwe need their political parties to commit themselves to ending the needless suffering they endure every day.

The humanitarian crisis that is now engulfing all Zimbabweans represents the greatest threat ever to face our country. While millions face starvation in the coming months, the death toll from cholera is now sitting at over fifty people per day and will increase dramatically now that the rainy season has begun in earnest. (more…)

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Reports reaching us are to the effect that 2 MDC activists were recently abducted from Harare’s Budiriro high density suburb by suspected state agents.

A third activist is in hiding after the assailants raided his home in his absence.

Another case is of a senior member in the MDC’s security department who was also abducted last night and his whereabouts still unknown.

The wave of recent abductions come in the wake of fresh deliberations being held in South Africa to try and break the deadlock between Zanu PF and the two MDC formations and on the heals of a deadly cholera epidemic. (more…)

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It is increasingly becoming clear that the Zimbabwean population does not have an understanding of the magnitude of the cholera epidemic that is taking its toll on the populace.

The Zanu PF administration is misleading the people through withholding information and this will subsequently result in more people unnecessarily losing their lives through negligence.

An acquaintance of mine in Mabvuku, one of the areas were a potential outbreak will cause disaster due to a collapse of the sewer system and unavailability of water, told me that its life as usual for residents as they go about their day to day business with no particular care being taken to avert an impending outbreak of the deadly cholera disease. (more…)

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I was quoted $2,568,000,000,000,000,000.00 for a spare part this morning. Can you imagine nipping into Tesco or Walmart and being presented with a bill to that value? It’s mind boggling.

Of course, most companies do not accept cheques and the cash is unavailable (companies are still restricted to a daily withdrawal of $1,000,000.00 and individuals $500,000.00 per day) which means I have to pay for the spare in foreign currency.

The company is not licensed to take forex, and so the whole transaction is illegal. The majority of the country is operating in this manner. We are at the stage where minimum wage earners are now demanding forex as they cannot purchase food if they receive wages in Zim dollars.

The new way of getting around the legal aspect of not trading in forex is to not quote in US Dollars but to use the word ‘UNITS’. We now have medical aid ‘units’, security company ‘units’, freight company ‘units’ and the list goes on. (more…)

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Remember, this is for a project that you think YOU can work towards achieving, with the support of others, within the context of the networking and debate opportunities provided by this blog and the Sokwanele website.

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