Human Rights Commission on human rights victims in Zimbabwe

23 January 2009

South African Human Rights Commission supports the action taken by CIVICUS,
the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum and others, to mobilise the support and
solidarity for victims of human rights and bad governance in Zimbabwe.

Human rights are universal and a birth right of all human beings regardless
of who they are and what they are. This includes the people of Zimbabwe. The
political and economic situation in Zimbabwe and failure of government in
Zimbabwe has led to extensive and intensive denial of fundamental human rights
of the people of Zimbabwe, many of whom are suffering from hunger, lack of
basic health services, clean water, food and many have also experienced
torture, assaults from government of Zimbabwe and its agents.

We as South Africans and the commission cannot stand by and allow the
flagrant denial of fundamental human rights of the millions of innocent
Zimbabweans to continue unchallenged and addressed nor can we continue to keep
quite when our own government and SADC are unable to bring an immediate to the
political impasse in Zimbabwe.

The commission thus adds to the call by many South Africans for our
government to be more decisive in bringing an effective solution to the
challenges in Zimbabwe and for the intervention of the United Nation Human
Rights Council (UNHRC) and the African Union (AU) in resolving this situation.
We also call upon fellow South Africans to put pressure on our government to
act with more urgency on this matter.

"An injury to one is an injury to all." To paraphrase Dr Nelson Mandela, we
cannot enjoy our freedom and human rights when our neighbours are denied their
rights by a regime which shows complete disregard for its people and its
neighbours and with SADC showing an inability to make necessary and decisive
interventions.

Issued by: South African Human Rights Commission
23 January 2009
Source: South African Human Rights Commission (http://www.sahrc.org.za)