{"id":98541,"date":"2024-09-11T10:27:13","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T08:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/human-rights-abuses-surged-during-sadc-summit-heal-zim"},"modified":"2024-09-11T12:38:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T10:38:07","slug":"human-rights-abuses-surged-during-sadc-summit-heal-zim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/human-rights-abuses-surged-during-sadc-summit-heal-zim","title":{"rendered":"Human rights abuses surged during Sadc Summit: Heal Zim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>ZIMBABWE recorded an unprecedented surge in human rights abuses, attributed mainly to suspected State security agents, ahead of the 44th Sadc Heads of State and Government Summit held in August this year, a new report has revealed.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report produced by Heal Zimbabwe Trust, the country witnessed an increase in human rights violations in August, with the State and its agencies perpetrating the majority of abuses prior to the summit hosted in Harare on last month.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the crackdown on dissent was meant to shut down any prospects of citizens exercising their right to protest during the Sadc summit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe month of August saw a sharp rise in human rights violations and conflict, particularly those perpetrated by the State and its agencies,\u201d Heal Zimbabwe said in the report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe period preceding the Sadc summit was punctuated by arbitrary arrests, pretrial detention, abductions, intimidation and a litany of human rights violations targeting human rights defenders, prodemocracy voices, opposition activists and government critics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe crackdown on dissent was meant to shut down any prospects of citizens exercising the right to protest during the Sadc summit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At least 160 citizens were arrested and charged with various offences with the underlying factor being that all of them were interrogated on their plans to protest during the summit.<\/p>\n<p>Heal Zimbabwe flagged statements by Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage minister Kazembe Kazembe, who confirmed the arrests and detention of government critics were meant to thwart the possibility of protests during the summit, stating that government had \u201coutplayed\u201d them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zanu PF national spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa confirmed the crackdown saying the arrested prodemocracy activists could be released as the Sadc summit was over.<\/p>\n<p>The report showed that as of August 31, a total of 128 opposition activists, pro-democracy campaigners and government critics were in pre-trial detention in prisons across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Heal Zimbabwe documented cases of abduction, intimidation and surveillance across Zimbabwe, including 17 cases of intimidation directly linked to the Sadc summit and 12 incidents of surveillance of human rights defenders, opposition activists and prodemocracy campaigners.<\/p>\n<p>The report also noted instances of police brutality, including the mauling of a 17-year-old by police dogs in Nkayi and assault cases on citizens in Harare.<\/p>\n<p>The report further noted that the surge in numbers of human rights abuse cases were a mirror into the state of human rights in Zimbabwe as the country experiences further democratic backsliding post the Robert Mugabe era.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIntimidation has become a weapon of choice in the post Mugabe era in suppressing opposition voices while State surveillance on prominent human rights defenders and opposition activists is another intimidatory tactics used,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe Follow Africa-Press<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. ZIMBABWE recorded an unprecedented surge in human rights abuses, attributed mainly to suspected State security agents, ahead of the 44th Sadc Heads of State and Government Summit held in August this year, a new report has revealed. According to the report produced by Heal Zimbabwe Trust, the country witnessed an increase in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":98540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[19],"class_list":{"0":"post-98541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Human rights abuses surged during Sadc Summit: Heal Zim - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ZIMBABWE recorded an unprecedented surge in human rights abuses, attributed mainly to suspected State security agents, a ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/human-rights-abuses-surged-during-sadc-summit-heal-zim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Human rights abuses surged during Sadc Summit: Heal Zim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ZIMBABWE recorded an unprecedented surge in human rights abuses, attributed mainly to suspected State security agents, a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/human-rights-abuses-surged-during-sadc-summit-heal-zim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-11T08:27:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-11T10:38:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2024\/09\/sm_1726038466.198832.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"639\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/human-rights-abuses-surged-during-sadc-summit-heal-zim\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/human-rights-abuses-surged-during-sadc-summit-heal-zim\",\"name\":\"Human rights abuses surged during Sadc Summit: Heal Zim - 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