ZIMBABWE: National Laws

Summary: General overview of Zimbabwe's national legal provisions on children's rights, including guidance on how to conduct further research.

National laws on children's rights

Status of the CRC in national law
Article 111B of the Zimbabwean Constitution provides that treaties and conventions do not form part of the law of Zimbabwe unless they have been incorporated by an Act of Parliament. The CRC has not been incorporated and so is not directly applicable in the country, does not prevail over national law, and cannot be directly enforced in the courts.  Nevertheless, courts can and do cite the Convention in interpreting national legislation or when addressing other matters related to children's rights.

Constitution: Chapter III of the Constitution (articles 11-26) contains Zimbabwe's constitutional rights provisions, including a small number of references to children. A small number of further provisions throughout the Constitution also specifically address children. The relevant provisions are:

• Ss. 5 and 7: relate to rights to citizenship by birth and registration, respectively
• S. 10: limits the meaning of child to "legitimate" children for the purposes of the citizenship provisions
• S. 16: includes provisions related to of pension benefit rights of children
• Art. 20(5): allows parents to send their children to schools that are not maintained by the State
• S. 26: includes stepchildren and adopted children within the definition of child for the purposes of the Constitution's rights provisions

Legislation: Zimbabwe has a Children's Act, but provisions relevant to children's rights can be found in a large number of Acts. Relevant legislation includes, but is by no means limited to:

• The Children's Act 1972 (amended 2002)
• The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act 2004
• The Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act 1927
• The Children's Protection and Adoption Act 1971 (amended 1994)
• The Legal Age of Majority Act 1982
• The Guardianship of Minors Act 1961 (amended 1997)
• The Refugees Act 1978 (amended 2001)
• The Labour Relations Act 1985
• The Education Act 1987
• The Marriage Act 1964 (amended 2004)
• The Citizenship of Zimbabwe Act 1984
• The Births and Deaths registration Act 1986

Legal Research:
The Zimbabwe Parliament maintains an official website (http://www.parlzim.gov.zw/) that offers the text of some bills under consideration and basic information about the country's law-making process. The International Labour Organisation's NATLEX database provides links to a selection of Zimbabwean legislation (http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.country?p_lang=en&p_country=ZWE), and Law and Justice Zimbabwe has also published a selection of legislation in English (http://www.law.co.zw/index.php/legislation-a-judgements/cat_view/15-legislation.html). The amended Constitution is available in English from the Electoral Knowledge Network (http://aceproject.org/ero-en/regions/africa/ZW/zimbabwe-constitution-of-zimbabwe-2008-1). In addition, the GlobaLex project at New York University has published a guide to legal research in Zimbabwe (http://www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex/Zimbabwe1.htm) and the U.S. Law Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov/law/help/guide/nations/zimbabwe.php) and the World Legal Information Institute (http://www.worldlii.org/zw/) provide a selection of links to relevant legal and governmental resources.

Case Law
CRC Jurisprudence
The High Court of Zimbabwe cited the CRC in in State v. Chikungurese [2004] when determining the appropriate sentence for a child sexual abuse offender and in Bion v. Bion [2005] in reference to the provision of child support.

Case Law Research
The Southern African Legal Information Institute has published selected decisions of the Supreme Court (http://www.saflii.org/zw/cases/ZWSC/), the Harare High Court (http://www.saflii.org/zw/cases/ZWHHC/) and the Bulawayo High Court (http://www.saflii.org/zw/cases/ZWBHC/).

Compliance with the CRC
Zimbabwe has not reported to the Committee on the Rights of the Child since 1996, and as such it is difficult to comment on the compatibility of its laws with the CRC. Nevertheless, at the time of the Committee's 1996 Concluding Observations, the Committee raised concerns that many areas of national law fell short of the principles and provisions of the Convention, and recommended that the State undertake a comprehensive review of its national laws with a view to ensuring compatibility. The Committee particularly identified discrimination as a prevalent feature of national law.

In depth analysis
As of its 1996 Concluding Observations, the Committee on the Rights of the Child highlighted several major flaws in the Zimbabwean juvenile justice system. In particular, the Committee raised serious concerns over the lack of a prohibition on capital punishment, life imprisonment, indeterminate prison sentences and whippings in relation to offences committed by persons under the age of 18. The Committee urged the State to explicitly prohibit the use of such penalties. The Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act prohibited capital punishment for offences committed by persons under 18 in 2004, but corporal punishment remains lawful for males under 18 and life sentences remain lawful with regards to certain offences committed by children.

The Committee also raised serious concerns with regards to the State's legislation on non-discrimination. The Committee noted that the Constitution's prohibition on discrimination (art. 23) contains broad exemptions to the principle in relation to areas such as adoption, marriage, divorce and other matters of personal law, as well as the inheritance rights of girls, the minimum age for marriage and the rights of children born out of wedlock. The relevant Constitutional provision has been amended since 1996, but the exemption in relation to personal law remains.

Current legal reform projects
The process of drafting a new Constitution is under way in Zimbabwe.