Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 07:40:23 -0700 From: crosswix@ix.netcom.com (camille) Subject: *QL*: Fwd: Attachment re Zimbabwe/UNESCO William A. Courson The Magnus Hirschfeld Centre for Human Rights Crosswicks House Post Office Box 1974 Bloomfield, New Jersey USA 07003-1974 E-Mail: crosswix@ix.netcom.com Facsimile: 201-746-3147 Dear Friends and Colleagues: I am forwarding the attached, comprising a planned submission to UNESCO's Committee on Conventions & Recommendations (under that body's Decision 104/EX/3.3 procedure) in connection with the conduct of the Government of Zimbabwe vis-a-vis the recent Zimbabwe International Book Fair. I would be extremely grateful for any comments or observation you would wish to share with me. Many thanks. Best regards, William Courson THE MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS C/O CROSSWICKS HOUSE POST OFFICE BOX 1974 BLOOMFIELD, NEW JERSEY U.S.A. 07003-1974 TELEPHONE: (201) 746-9516 FACSIMILE: (201) 746-3147 E-MAIL: CROSSWIX@IX.NETCOM.COM WILLIAM A.M. COURSON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 3 August, 1996 The Director-General United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization / UNESCO 7 Place de la Fontenoy 75700 Paris, France RE: Communication regarding violations by the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe of Certain Human Rights Normative Standards within UNESCO's Purview Pursuant to Executive Board Decision 104/EX (3.3), with Respect to the Gays & Lesbians Association of Zimb abwe (GALZ), the Zimbabwe International Book Fair and Others Dear Mr. Director-General: It is the Petitioner's desire that the instant communication concerning the above-captioned matter be brought to the attention of the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization (hereinafter, UNESCO) Committee on Conventions & Recommend ations for its examination and the ultimate issuance of its recommendation to the respondent State Party captioned above, in accordance with the provisions of the Decision of the UNESCO Executive Board, (3.#), 104th Session (Paris, 24 April - 9 June 1978 , hereinafter cited as Decision 104/EX or the Decision). Article 10(a) of the aforecited Decision calls upon UNESCO to examine alleged violations of human rights normative standards falling within its sphere of competence and interest, viz., in the areas of education, culture, scientific development and matters relating to the dispersal of information and the communications media. It is the Petitioner's belief that in the instant matter there has been and continues to be an ongoing and substantive violation of human rights normative atandards as exemplified inter alia by the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by the general principles underlying UNESCO's scope and functions and by other conventions and standards relating to the observance by States of standards of human and civil rights, particularly in respect of the rights of free expression , and to education and participation in cultural affairs. In conformity with the requirements for admissibility of communications as set forth in Decision 104/Ex, Article 14(a)(i) through (x), the Petitioner states as follows: I. That the full name of the Petitioner is William A. Courson, aged forty-three years and a citizen of the Republic of Ireland and of the United States of America. The Petitioner brings the instant to the attention of the Committee on Conventions & Recommen dations in his capacity as executive director of the Magnus Hirschfeld Centre for Human Rights, a non-governmental organization concerned with the promotion of human rights standards internationally, and the address of which is Post Office Box 1974, Bloom field, New Jersey 07003-1974, U.S.A. II. That the Petitioner has reliable knowledge of the ongoing violations described hereinafter in connection with Article 14(a)(iii) of the aforecited Decision 104/EX, said violations falling within UNESCO's sphere of competence as they embrace matters relati ng ot the same. III: The Petitioner states that the parties in interest to the instant matter are: (a) The Gay & Lesbian Association of Zimbabwe (also known as "GALZ"), an organization domiciled in and organized under the laws of the Republic of Zimbabwe, with its principal offices at Private Bag A6131, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe and at 73 Quorn Avenue , Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe; (b) The Zimbabwe International Bookfair Trust (also known as the Zimbabwe International Book Fair), an organization domiciled in and organized under the laws of the Republic of Zimbabwe, with its principal offices at 78 Kaguvi Street, P.O. Box CY 1179, Ca useway, Zimbabwe; (c) The Board of Censors of Zimbabwe, a statutory agency of the Government of Zimbabwe charged with the application of certain legislation of the Government of Zimbabwe in respect of entertainment and the communications media, with offices at The Ministry of Information, Posts & Telecommunications, Liuquenda House, Baker Avenue, Harare, Zimbabwe; (d) The Director of Information of the Government of Zimbabwe (Mr. Bornwell Chakaodza), with his principal office at the Directorate of Information, P.O. Box CY 1276, Causeway, Zimbabwe; (e) The legal representative of the Government of Zimbabwe, Mr. Patrick Chinamasa, the Attorney-General, with his principal offices at The Attorney-General's Office, Central House, 4th floor, 3 Central Avenue, Harare, Zimbabwe; (f) An unincorporated organization known as "Sangano Munhumutapa" whose president is Mr. Lawrence Chakaredza, and whose offices are maintained at Sangano Munhumutapa, c/o The Student Union, the University of Zimbabwe, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe. IV. Further, the Petitioner says that the events giving rise to the instant matter are as follows: On 22 July (1996) it was announced by the executive director of Zimbabwe International Book Fair (Ms. Trish Mbanga) that the organization known as GALZ (the Gay & Lesbian Association of Zimbabwe) had made application for and been accepted by her organiza tion to participate in its 1996 Annual Book Fair to take place in Harare, Zimbabwe from 30th July through 3rd August. In the face of her organization's having yielded to the stated desires of the Government of Zimbabwe in withdrawing GALZ's permission to participate in the last (1995) Zimbabwe International Book Fair, Ms. Mbanga stated that in the case of the current year's event: "We want to exercise democracy; we cannot stop them from participating, but people can just ignore them if they want to," and further stated that in the case of the current year's event, legal action would be taken against the Government of Zimbabwe should the latter seek to block GALZ's participation. It should be noted that GALZ's participation in the Book Fair comprised the distribution of literature on its counselling services, on the human rights aspects of the issues it sought to address (i.e., the rights of homosexual persons) and on pertinent i ssues of the foregoing rights as they are afforded by the Constitution and laws of Zimbabwe, as well as on AIDS-prevention. It may further be noted that all of the foregoing materials were and are publically available, and could in no reasonable fashion be interpreted as posing an even possible offense to public morals. On 24 July, the Government of Zimbabwe issued a legal order (captioned a "Notice of Prohibition") without having examined the materials to be displayed or distributed by GALZ prohibiting GALZ's participation in the Book Fair, signed by Mr. Herbert Malaba, chairman of the Gvoernment's Board of Censors, pursuant to the provisions of Section 17(1) of the Censorship and Entertainments Control Act. Subsequent violation of the foregoing Notice of Prohibition would subject both GALZ and the Zimbabwe Internation al Book Fair to the sanctions of criminal law, including fines and imprisonment. On 30 July a petition was presented by GALZ contesting the foregoing Notice of Prohibition in the High Court of Zimbabwe, and on 31 July that Court set aside the Notice of Prohibition. Later that same day, the Government of Zimbabwe announced its intentio n to bring an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe contesting the High Court's decision. The following day the Supreme Court denied the Government's appeal. Notwithstanding the foregoing and irrespective of the outcome of the Government's appeal to the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, three issues of immediate and urgent concern tangent to the Government of Zimbabwe's observance of internationally normative human r ights standards are given rise to, in connection with Article 14(a)(ix) of the aforecited Decision, dealing with the availability, effectiveness and exhaustion of domestic remedies: Firstly, a variety of statutory legal mechanisms appear to be at the disposal of the Government to ban GALZ's participation in the Book Fair (including but not limited to sections other than 17(1) of the Censorship & Entertainments Control Act, thr Offici al Secrets Act, the Law and Order Maintenance Act, inter alia), the challenging in Court of which would delay a final decision on the issue until after the Book Fair had terminated on 3 August, making the point of GALZ's participation therein a moot one. Even were such a final decision readily available, the factors detailed infra would likely render it ineffectual. Secondly, there is an issue of concern relating to the Government of Zimbabwe's history of conduct in either disregarding or rendering ineffectual the orders of its judiciary. Instances of the foregoing include (but are not limited to): (a) the disregard by the Government of orders issued by courts in its refusal to pay compensation to an opposition Member of Parliament who was the 1990 victim of torture at the hands of the Central Intelligence Organization (the CIO) and in which case th e Attorney-General has been unable to compel Government compliance; (b) the refusal by the Ministry of Home Affairs to comply with a 1994 Supreme Court ruling overturning the existing and continuingly effective statute, and declaring that both women and men equally conferred citizenship and residency rights on non-Zimbabw ean spouses; (c) the 1992 amendment (No. 11) to the Constitution of Zimbabwe (enacted by a majority vote in Parliament) permitting corporal punishment of juvenile offenders in the wake of a contemporaneous Supreme Court ruling declaring the same unlawful; and, (d) the enactment by a Parliamentary majority of a Constitutional amendment (No. 13) in 1993 one week after a Supreme Court ruling that the prolonged pre-execution incarceration of capital offenders was unlawful, which amendment declared that neither trea tment of prisoners nor delays in carrying out sentences of death entitled prisoners to a stay or remission of sentence, and which amendment nullified the effect of the foregoing ruling. Thirdly, a concern arises relating to the Government of Zimbabwe's use of the public communications media to foment public hated of and violence toward Zimbabwe's homosexual minority community, for which GALZ is the only organized vehicle (in that country ), which use appears to exist as an extra-legal means of abrogating both legally-guaranteed as well as internationally normative human right standards. It may be noted here that that utterances by various functionaries of Zimbabwe's Government, intended to foment such hatred and actual violence against said minority, have been given extremely wide and supportive coverage in the domestic press which may reasonably be seen as an organ of that Government. It may be further noted that Zimbabwe's major print media (7 English-language newspapers and 1 Shona-language publication) belong to the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust, a holding organization whose major ownership rests in the hands of the Government and its political party. Radio and television broadcasting facilities are directly owned and controlled by the Government as is the national wire service, ZIANA (Zimbabwe Inter-African News Agency). This concentration of ownership persists in contravention of an August 1994 ruling by Zimbabwe's Supreme Court tha t found the Government's monopoly on telecommunications unlawful owing, inter alia, to its major negative impact on the exercise of the Constitutionally-guaranteed right of free expression. Notwithstanding the foregoing judgement, the Government has rece ntly sought to impose (and succeeded in imposing) more stringent controls on its holding entity, the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (hereinafter, "ZMMT" or "the Trust"). The latter was formed by the Government in 1981, for the purpose of acquiring controllin g share ownership (from the former owner in South Africa, the Argus Newspaper Group) in the Zimbabwe Newspapers Group, the only publisher of daily newspapers in Zimbabwe. At that time, the Government permitted the provision to be included in the Trust's Constitution and organizing statute that defined the Trust's separation from State organs by barring Government officials from sitting on its Board of Directors, which Board alone had the power to elect its own successors. Owing to the Trust's becoming i ncreasingly dependent on Government loans and grants, the latter's Ministry of Information came to play a growing if informal role in the administration of the nominally independent Trust, amplified by the fact that the Board of Directors included no prof essional journalists among its number. Consequently, supporters of the Government and its political party were appointed, via the Trust, to key newspaper editorial and management posts. In 1995, with the retirement of the Chairman of the Board of Direct ors, Dr. Davison Sadza, the remaining members of the Board rejected the Minister of Information's suggestion for a successor and selected a Government opponent, Attorney Honour Mkushi, who at the time of his selection stated "the Trust does not want to op erate on the basis of being tied at the end of a string that can be pulled by the Ministry of Information and the Government - there is no question of my acting like a civil servant running between the ZMMT and Government ministries." While initially, th e Board of Directors stood firmly behind Attorney Mkushi, intense political pressure ultimately impelled the Board to amend the Trust's Constitution to grant the Government of Zimbabwe outright control of its operations. Confirmation of this fact was off ered by the Director of Information in the Ministry of Information, Posts & Telecommunications, who stated: "the Trust's previous legal foundation gave absolute powers to the Trustees [i.e., the Board of Directors] to the complete exclusion of the Governm ent; this was unhealthy in that it meant the Trustees could run Zimbabwe's newspapers the way they wanted and neither the Minister of Information nor the President had the legal powers to do anything about it." In addressing the consequences of the foregoing and the aforementioned campaign on its part to inculcate public hatred of and violence toward its homosexual minority community, the Government of Zimbabwe appears to deny any appeal to itself to protect its homosexual citizens in general and members of GALZ in particular from the results. A current illustration of the foregoing refusal occurred on 25 July, at which time the University of Zimbabwe-based youth organization Sangano Munhumutapa threatened, in the words of its President Lawrence Chakaredza, "total sabotage of the fair if GALZ were permitted to participate" stating further "We will burn down the entire fair; we'll raze the GALZ [display] stand. There could be a public genocide, and our action w ill be for a noble cause - we want to protect the values of our culture." Requests for police protetion by GALZ for its display at the Book Fair were denied by representatives of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (the "ZPR"). To the Petitioner's best knowledge, information and belief, no action has been taken to date on the part of the Government of Zimbabwe, its Attorney-General, the ZPR or other of its law enforcement apparatus to counter the foregoing threat of unlawful vio lence nor to prosecute its authors. An illustration of the potential for Government-inculcated or tolerated violence is seen in the remarks made at a public demonstration outside the Book Fair venue on 2 August by a Public Prosecutor in the Government's employ, Attorney Herbert Ushewokunze, Jr., who stated publically: "We don't care what the High Court says; this is a Court of the people, not a Court of 'poofs'." To the best of the Petitioner's knowledge, information and belief, no action to discipline this individual has been taken by any Governmental, judicial or professional legal authorities. By way of summary, a continuing threat exists in Zimbabwe in respect of the instant matter to the rights of freedom of expression, of association and assembly, and to the right of participation in cultural life all of which are human rights issues within UNESCO's sphere of interest and mandate to address: While it cannot be disputed that the respondent State Party has a judiciary that is intact and independent it cannot be said to be available to petitioners nor to afford effective remedies owing to four factors: (a) the repeatedly demonstrated ability on the part of the Government of Zimbabwe to disregard or delay the effectuation of the orders of its Courts; (b) the extremely facile mechanism in place for the enactment of legislation and the amendment of Zimbabwe's Constitution so as to effectively nullify Court orders; (c) the campaign on the part of various functionaries within Zimbabwe's Government (including, inter alia the Head of State, the Minister of Home Affairs, and the Director of Information) to foment public hatred of and violence toward that country's homo sexual minority, and the effectiveness of the mass media as an organ of that Government in furthering and intensifying that extra-legal campaign; and, (d) the demonstrated unwilingness of the Government of Zimbabwe to effect the full and equal protection of the law to its citizens in addressing the results of the foregoing campaign. In consideration of the foregoing, the Petitioner respectfully requests: That the instant communication be deemed admissible to the consideration of the Committee on Conventions & Recommendations under the provisions of Decision 104/EX, Article 14(d); That the instant communication be communicated to the respondent State Party under the provisions of Article 14(b)(iii) of the aforecited Decision; That pursuant to the provisions of Article 14(k) of the aforecited Decision, the Committee on Conventions & Recommendations take action forthwith to bring about an amicable settlement of and resolution to the violations referred to hereinabove in such a f ashion as to advance the promotion of the observance of human rights normative standards falling within UNESCO's sphere of competence; and, That owing to the potential for and likelihood of serious, on-going and grave violations of the rights referred to hereinabove, the Committee implement the provisions of Articles 17 and 18 of the aforecited Decision and refer the instant matter to the Exe cutive Board and General Conference of UNESCO for its public consideration. It is the Petitioner's understanding that the Director-General will acknowledge receipt of the instant communication pursuant to the provisions of Articles 13 and 14(b)(i) of the aforecited Decision. Respectfully submitted, William A. Courson Executive Director THE MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS cc: GALZ Committee --kvikhrxllyvwgtgnvdsitncbumuqvd-- ***************************************************************************** * To subscribe to QUEERLAW, send mail to: majordomo@abacus.oxy.edu * * In the mail message, enter ONLY the words: subscribe queerlaw * * To unsubscribe to QUEERLAW, send mail to: majordomo@abacus.oxy.edu * * In the mail message, enter ONLY the words: unsubscribe queerlaw * * Words in the Subject: line are NOT processed! * * There is also a QUEERLAW-DIGEST mailing list available * ******************************************************************************