Full preliminary findings of the UN special rapporteur on sanctions to Zimbabwe

The Special Rapporteur underlines that low salaries and reduced Internet access result in the impossibility to pay tuition fees and growing school and university drop-out rates, the emigration of teachers and university professors and the reduction of the number of schooling hours, endangering thus the exercise of the right to education. The reported reluctance of foreign partners to cooperate with Zimbabwean educational institutions, sport societies and private companies, as well as impediments to money transfers, difficulties in getting visas, the reported ineligibility or limited eligibility of Zimbabwean students and scholars for research grants and scholarships affect the right to education as well as international academic, sports and cultural cooperation, innovation, academic freedoms and cultural rights.

The impossibility to buy equipment, raw materials and spare parts directly from producers and the impediments to bank transfers prevent the involvement of Zimbabwean companies of all sizes (including those organized by and for vulnerable population groups: people with disabilities, women in rural areas involved in folk crafts), and agriculture and the mining industry in international cooperation, and result in substantial declines in their revenues, leading to poverty, the violation of the right to food, right to health, right to life, and economic and cultural rights.

The same reasons have been reported to create a substantial (6 months – 2 years) backlog in manufacturing IDs and passports, affecting therefore the right to the recognition of the personality, which limits access to the rights to education, to work, to social guarantees and to healthcare. Besides that, the unavailability of credit and foreign investment, over-compliance by banks; higher costs and longer durations of bank transfers, impediments in the delivery of essential equipment and spare parts, and under-developed and deteriorating infrastructure affect tourism and prevent the implementation of environmental protection and sustainable development projects.

They also result in rising emigration from Zimbabwe, primarily of males and qualified youth (up to 5 mln people), affecting rights of the workers as well as of those of women and children left without stable incomes.

Recommendations

The Special Rapporteur reminds all parties of their obligation under the UN Charter to observe principles and norms of international law, including principles of sovereign equality, political independence, non-intervention in the domestic affairs of states, and peaceful settlement of international disputes. She welcomes the decisions of the European Union and Switzerland to minimize the number of active targeted sanctions to zero and calls on the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia to review and lift sanctions on natural and legal persons of Zimbabwe in accordance with principles and norms of international law and human rights law.

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