Human Rights Violated in Zimbabwe

As Americans, we have special unalienable rights given to us at birth. Today, they allow us to live free lives, and are said to never be taken away. If a form of government ever tried to violate them, the people have the right to abolish it, and therefore create a new government. So why haven’t the people in Zimbabwe done this? Violations of personal freedom and integrity are frequent there. Most government supporters are responsible for these violations, which include assaults, torture, death threats, kidnappings, and unlawful arrests.

During the time when most violations were happening, there was a huge controversy between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai. Both believed in different things, which therefore created chaos. In March 2007, there was a rally lead by Morgan Tsvangirai called the Movement for Democratic change (MDC). Many (close to 50) opposition activists were arrested and severely beaten by police officers. Tsvangirai was arrested by the police for trying to lead the rally. After his release, he told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BCC) that he suffered head injuries, blows to the arms, knees, and back, and that he lost a significant amount of blood. In the weeks following, violence continued to grow bloodier.


Law enforcement agencies, such as police officers, are the major source of human rights abusers in Zimbabwe. It makes you wonder if we can even trust our own officers. The Human Rights Watch stated that there have been growing numbers of cases in which the police have assaulted and tortured the people of Zimbabwe. Opposition gatherings, where there are many people, are where most brutal attacks take place. Many citizens have claimed to have been in a situation where they, themselves were tortured. One case was the arrest of a student activist leader, Promise Mkwanazi, on May 29, 2006. He was held custody in Bindura for 5 days without charge. During the time at the police station, he was repeatedly stripped, shackled, and beaten with batons. Doesn’t exactly seem fair, does it? Another man, named Edward Chikombo, took photos which showed the assaults that occurred on the streets of Zimbabwe. He eventually got abducted and murdered for supposedly sending the pictures to foreign media. There was no proof that he actually did send out the pictures, but they killed him anyway.

In July 2007, the United States Department of State made an announcement stating that the situation in Zimbabwe wasn’t getting any better. In fact, even today it continues to deteriorate. There has been recent government price fixing on all consumer goods which have led to major shortages in basic necessities. Many desperate citizens became violent in order to get the food and supplies they needed. The law enforcement agencies continued to enforce the restrictions “by any means necessary” in order to keep everyone in line. This included lethal force.

At the end of the day we should think of ourselves as lucky. As you can see, hardly any of these punishments are fair. People are being tortured in ways we can’t even imagine.


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