Women facing ‘offline and online’ violence ahead of elections in Zimbabwe – African commission

By News24.com

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) said it was concerned with what it called “offline and online” attacks on women ahead of the general elections in Zimbabwe.

Janet Ramatoulie Sallah-Njie, the Zimbabwe rapporteur and special rapporteur on the rights of women in Africa, said: “Persistent online violence targeting women often stems from the root causes of offline violence and, in many instances, escalates to physical harm.”

To protect women who are at the forefront of political affairs, the ACHPR suggested the Zimbabwean government should “endeavour to strengthen its efforts in combatting hate speech and harmful content” because it led to violence against women in politics.

The ACHPR said it had received reports about gender-based violence and discrimination against women because of their or their relatives’ political affiliations, particularly with the opposition.

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With numerous red flags, such as court challenges and an uneven electoral field, violence against women made a bad situation worse.

“This distressing situation not only jeopardises the lives and well-being of these women, but also poses a significant threat to the credibility of the election and the democratic values within the country,” said the ACHPR in a statement.

There’s only one female presidential candidate in this year’s election: Elisabeth Valerio, leader of the United Zimbabwe Alliance.

She had to file a court challenge to be accepted after her candidature was disqualified by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission on allegations that she had not paid nomination fees on time.

Another female politician candidate, Linda Masirira, of the Labour, Economists and African Democrats was disqualified from the polls on grounds that she failed to raise the required R360 million in nomination fees.

For Masirira, denied by the courts, “lawfare is a silent pandemic”.

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For most women’s rights champions in Zimbabwe, this year’s election further reduced women to cheerleaders in decision-making.

This is despite the fact that the 2013 Constitution’s Sections 17, 56 and 80 advocate for women to participate in politics.

Under the law, 60 seats, in a Parliament with 210 members, should be reserved for women under the proportional representation ticket.

This year, there are 637 parliamentary contestants across the board and, of those, only 70 are women.

The main reasons for the downscaling of active participation by women, according to Helen Kadirire, of the Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence, are patriarchal attitudes.