- Change the Presidents term of office
- Change the composition of the Senate and House of Assembly
- Establish an Independent Human Rights Commission
- Provide and create the office of Deputy Chief Justice
- Alter the title of the Commissioner of Police and Ombudsman to those of the Commissioner General of the Police and the Public Protector respectively
Women’s participation in governance and political decision making is a universally accepted right and yet in most parliaments women are underrepresented and this is still not an issue. Women’s level of participation in politics still remains low. In Zimbabwe women constitute the majority of the population but they are discriminated against and disregarded. Not only that, women face a number of barriers when it comes to taking part in politics and decision making such as cultural, economic, political and even legislation. Such barriers have culminated in gender imbalances. Internationally Zimbabwe signed and ratified CEDAW, Convention on Civil and Political Rights, Beijing Platform for Action adopting the 12 Critical Areas of Concern, the Millennium Development Goals further adopting among others MDG #3 on Promoting Gender Equality and Empowerment. Continentally, Zimbabwe signed the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women. Regionally the country committed itself to the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development of 1997 to ensure the ‘equal representation of women and the men in decision making…’ Further these instruments were localized through the formulation of a National Gender Policy in 2001, to facilitate the designing and implementation of policies that redress gender imbalances in all spheres and levels of life as part of fulfilling its regional and international commitments. The Zimbabwean government further prioritized 4 critical areas among them: Women in Politics and Decision Making and Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of women all in an effort to improve the status of women in Zimbabwe.
An analysis of Amendment 18 clearly shows gender is not reflected as a cross cutting issue in the Amendment.
A proper gender analysis requires the appearance of disaggregated data. This amendment lacks proper disaggregated data in terms of sex especially in terms of Clause 6 and 7 of Composition of the Senate and House of Assembly which state:
The National Gender Policy recognizes the fact that women constitute more than 52% of Zimbabwe’s population. It actually states that it ‘is important that their representation and participation in the development process should be commensurate with this numerical reality.’ One of the main objectives of the National Gender Policy is to create equal opportunities for women and men in decision making in all areas and at all levels. However the composition of both the Senate and the House of Assembly does not aim to have women’s representation at any level except in the Human Rights Commission Clause 27 where 4 women are mentioned as members only.
The Amendment does not state how many women are to be appointed or elected into house of Assembly or Senate clearly ignoring the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development of 1997 which states that 30% representation by 2005 and the 50% representation of the African Union’s African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. Further, the Amendment is silent on methods of trying to reflect marginalized groups in decision making such as changing the electoral system to benefit marginalized groups or legislated quotas. There is no frame work set to legislate women’s full participation at all levels of society decelerating gender equity.
Millennium Development Goals have taken centre stage in the development arena with progress in every sector being measured against these eight world targets. With the ever increasing emphasis of women’s rights being at the core of any strategy to achieve equality between men and women: in other words prioritizing the strategic over the practical. Thus for example, it becomes pointless to talk about women’s empowerment, when women do not have access to land, property and credit. Zimbabwe chose to priorities four of the eight goals and among them, Millennium Development Goal #3 which aims ‘Promote gender equality and empowerment of women’ that was aimed at being mainstreamed in all development goals to remove structural causes of inequality. This was under the realization that unless gender is centrally located across all the MDGs they will have no meaning. Gender equality is a core value of development.
The fact that parliaments are vested with constitutional powers to legislate and make changes to laws, it is imperative for parliamentarians and institutions such as parliament to be fully involved in bring about gender equality and equity using all machineries at local, national and regional levels.It should be noted that the House of Assembly and Senate could be used as means to bring about a gender balance. How fairly are women going to be represented in all offices? This legislation is not creating equal access for women as a marginalized group to public office nor is it enhancing women’s participation in political life. Hence the legislature remains unreflective of the largest composition of the electorate. The National Gender Policy states that all government bodies should acknowledge women and men as equal and important human resources for development.
This Amendment denies women equal political equality forcing women to negotiate for their dignity and equal rights.
So do we women remain voters and political party campaigners and supporters? There is no commitment anywhere in the Amendment 18 by the Government of Zimbabwe to integrate gender. How then can gender equality be achieved when there is no back up from specific pieces of legislation? The Amendment clearly shows that politics is still seen as an activity for men only hence it seeks to benefit men more than women. The Amendment does not ensure equal or even fair representation of women. Government should actively end gender discrimination. The fight for political power should become fairer considering different effects on and options for women. Women should be involved in political processes. It appears this Bill has come to legitimize an already planned zero-sum game. It is a smokescreen aiming at serving the interests of men who are the main actors of the game.
More so, the language used in Amendment 18 reinforces sexist stereotypes in a variety of ways.
There is the use of masculine third person, his instead of his/ her, him rather than him/ her which has the effect of excluding women and could have been avoided by using they, their, his/hers, he/she or using man and woman. The sexist term chairman in Clause 27 could have been avoided by using chairperson. Such sexist words give the impression that men participate in certain activities or professions and secondly that women do not do the work associated with the noun. There clearly is no sign that both men and women were involved in drawing up of the Amendment. The Amendment is reinforcing patriarchy and stereotypes not attempting to address any gender imbalances.
Clause 2 Section 28 reduces the presidential term from six to five years making it run concurrently with that of Parliament. This section makes several references to the President as a ‘he’ and ‘his’. Does this mean that the position of president or office of president is a male territory to be only occupied by male candidates? Is this amendment also implying that all Zimbabwean future presidents are male? There is need for gender neutral language that includes both sexes with consistent use of ‘his/ her.’
Clause 16 Amendment 80 and Clause 19 Amendment 85 make provision for the appointment of Deputy Chief Justice who will act as Chief Justice whenever the office of the Chief Justice is vacant or if the Chief Justice fails to perform the required office functions. Once again the amendment emphasizes the sex of the person that should occupy office by using ‘he’, ‘his’ when referring to the Chief Justice reinforcing patriarchy and clearly assuming that such a job is for men only. Are all Zimbabwean Chief Justices going to male and is this office inclusive of women?
Clause 26 Section 107 and 108 deals with the office of the Public Protector and Deputy Public Protector and outlines that the Public Protector to be appointed by the President is male with emphasis on use of ‘his’ and ‘he.’ There is emphasis on ‘his’ functions not ‘the’ functions. Such words reinforce patriarchy even though the public protector is a gender sensitive term.
Clause 27 falls in line with UN General Assembly Resolution 41/129. This clause seeks to establish a Human Rights Commission. There shall be a chairman (male) instead of chairperson (gender neutral) as the former is not balanced. Members of the Human Rights Commission are male because it emphasizes that ‘A member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission shall, before entering upon his office…’
Observance of human rights is not adequate if women’s human rights are trampled upon and not respected in law and practice. We recommend that the Amendment clearly state the number of women to be included in the composition of Parliament and that the Amendment adhere to conventions signed around quota systems for women. The language of politics should change as this is not an old boy’s network.
The only part of the Bill that gives specific and clear inclusion of women is New Section Constitution Clause 27.
However this is not positive as none of these women will occupy decision making positions in this Human Rights Commission but remain just four mere members.
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