25th agosto 2026

Submission to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Promotion Mission to Zimbabwe

Equality Now, together with the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association, and FEMNET, submitted a briefing to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights during its Promotion Mission to Zimbabwe. The submission highlights key human rights concerns affecting women and girls, including threats to the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, access to justice, refugee protections, prison conditions, and emerging risks associated with artificial intelligence. It calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to strengthen legal protections and uphold its obligations under the African Charter and the Maputo Protocol.

What’s included in the submission?

The submission examines Zimbabwe’s implementation of its regional human rights obligations and provides recommendations in five key areas:

  • Protecting the independence and mandate of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission.
  • Improving conditions for women in prisons, detention facilities, and criminal justice processes.
  • Strengthening legal protections for refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and migrants.
  • Promoting gender-responsive governance of artificial intelligence, including safeguards against technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
  • Advancing implementation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Maputo Protocol through stronger legal and institutional reforms.

Who’s this submission for?

  • The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR)
  • Law and policymakers
  • Legal professionals
  • Government institutions
  • Human rights organisations
  • Regional and international advocacy bodies

Download your file

Missing gravity form id.

Key recommendations

  • Review of the current Refugees Act and the Refugees Regulations, to ensure fuller and more concrete protection of women refugees in alignment with the Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013) and the prevailing international standards for protection of refugees
  • To continue strengthening the Female Open Prison system, through adequate resources, and to devolve it to other provinces to promote women’s right to movement.
  • Reform refugee legislation to align with women’s rights and gender equality constitutional provisions and international human rights standards.
  • Enact mandatory gender and human rights impact assessments before design, during deployment and use, and monitoring of all public Artificial Intelligence  systems
  • Amend the Cyber and Data Protection Act (2021) and related GBV laws to criminalise and to explicitly address all forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including through the use of AI.

Explore more resources

1

Technology-facilitated gender-based violence: Policy recommendations for accelerating domestication and implementation of the SADC Model Law

A policy brief examining how Southern African countries can strengthen legal and policy responses to technology-facilitated gender-based violence through the SADC Model Law on Gender-Based Violence.

Newsletter Sign-up

Make a donation

I want to donate