UK and USA major violators of human rights in Zimbabwe-former minister

Some of the rights that have been infringed are, inter alia:

•     the right to life
•     the right to development
•     the right to work
•     the right to health
•     the right to food
•     the right to housing
•     the right to water and sanitation
•     the right to education
•     the right to clean and safe environment
•      the right to human dignity
•     the right to free trade
•     the right to social protection
•    the right to identity
•    the right to free and fair elections.

The major gross violator of human rights in Zimbabwe is the, UK and USA Government.  You see, as Zimbabweans in Parliament here present, we were even supposed to be very close to each other as political parties but we were divided even by this ZIDERA because some of us were expecting sweets so you will see that this, as alluded to already, ZIDERA is an antithesis to who we are as Zimbabweans and this is why it is very critical for all of us as Zimbabweans to put our political differences aside and support this motion as moved by Hon. Mutodi and seconded by Hon. Shamu.  

Impact on the National Economy

The imposition of unilateral coercive measures in 2000 resulted in sustained economic contraction in almost all the sectors of the economy, resulting in a cumulative Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline by about USD21 billion. Some of the major economic sectors which have been directly affected by the measures include agriculture, manufacturing, mining, tourism and the financial sector. These sectors are what we define as real economy. Zimbabwe has also lost over USD42 billion in revenue, USD4.5 billion in bilateral donor support annually since 2001, USD12 billion in loans from the IMF, World Bank and the African Development Bank and USD18 billion in international commercial loans.

The contraction of the economy is attributed to declining Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow as investors tend to shun Zimbabwe perceived as high risk. FDI inflows increased significantly from an average of USD8 million per year in the 1980s to an average of USD95 million in the 1990s, but declined to about USD20 million per year after 2000. Exports shrunk from USD2.4 billion in 1996 to USD1.5 billion in 2009.

Infrastructure across all sectors that include roads, railway, telecommunications, energy generation, water and sanitation deteriorated, resulting in an infrastructural funding gap of USD34 billion as at 2017.

The issue on debt: Poor economic performance crippled the ability of the economy to generate adequate revenues for Government to provide basic social services in the areas of health, education, social protection, water and sanitation. Further, the Government failed to service its foreign debt which stood at USD3.1 billion as at 2000, but has since ballooned to about USD18 billion, of which about USD5.2 billion are arrears, further compounding the incapacitation of the Government to provide essential services.

Continued next page

(416 VIEWS)