IBJ-Zimbabwe recently held a roundtable discussion with its partner organizations, LRF, LSZ and ZACRO, and journalists and private lawyers to strategize on the conducting of a prison census in Zimbabwe. During the engaging discussion, held on 18 August 2010, the participants were able to identify the need for conducting, and the objectives of, such a census in Zimbabwe. The main objectives were identified as (i) determining the status of the prisoners, (ii) looking at the vulnerable groups, particularly women and children, (iii) looking at the classification of prisoners and (iv) looking at the HIV/AIDS situation in prisons.The information would then be utilized in the systematic processing of the case workload by looking at the discharging of cases that have taken long to come to trial and also the speeding up of judgments. It would also be used in advocating for any necessary policy and law reform in the criminal justice system for the promotion of the rights of prisoners.

The participants then proceeded to come up with strategies for the preparation and conducting of such a census. They agreed that it was important to, initially, sensitize the necessary authorities, particularly the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs, on the census and its objectives. They also agreed on the need to come up with a standard questionnaire and a concept paper for the census. The partner organizations agreed to collaborate with IBJ and make use of their structures in conducting the census. It was agreed that this census would initially target the main remand centres.

The participants then came up with specific action plans for the implementation of these strategies. Participants expressed gratitude at the hosting of the discussion by IBJ, many hoping that this census would spur more collaborative efforts with IBJ.

Above: Lawyers discussing the need for a prison census in Zimbabwe (Photo by Florence Chatira)

On Friday, May 14 and Saturday, May 15, the IBJ Zimbabwe Team hosted a successful advanced defender skills training in Harare, Zimbabwe. Approximately fifty Harare-based lawyers attended the continuation of last years training, including a number of senior lawyers, some who have been practicing for approximately twenty years, and others who run the Legal Aid Directorate. Of the lawyers in attendance, forty were lawyers who agreed to take criminal cases of victims of torture or those at a high risk of being torture on behalf of IBJ over the past year.

On Friday, United States federal public defender, Anthony Natale gave detailed lectures on developing a theory on the case and cross examination, providing training on practical skills that attendants found helpful and said that they would use in their day-to-day practice.

In addition, distinguished Zimbabwean lawyer Alex Muchadehama gave a presentation on the security of criminal lawyers in Zimbabwe, highlighting that lawyers should call upon the state to enforce already existing measures to ensure their safety.In an enlightening discussion, lawyers spoke about the current state Zimbabwe and what this means for the legal system. Politically, they agreed, the inclusive government has lead to a number of legislative political compromises, which have particularly affected local criminal law. Additionally, separation of powers appears to have ceased to exist. The current economic status, they noticed, has lead to a number of problems within the criminal justice system, including mass corruption throughout the justice system, where bribes have become commonplace.

On Saturday, Anthony Natale led a cross-examination demonstration, in which every attending attorney had the chance to develop and ask questions of mock witnesses. Each participating lawyer, which was over 99% of the lawyers in attendance, found this to be the most practical and educational portion of the day.

Distinguished University of Zimbabwe Professor Feltoe gave a lecture on the importance of an independent judiciary, in which he highlighted problems of corruption and political interdependence that can be found in almost any country but particularly have plagued the criminal justice system in Zimbabwe as of late. He outlined how the Constitution of Zimbabwe, African Commission principles, UN principles, and Bagalore principles all require judicial independence , but formal legal pronouncements are not enough and that implementation and observation are fundamentally important.

The lawyers in attendance spoke about the values that they, as Zimbabwean lawyers, share, which include hope, endurance, commitment and professionalism. As a constituency of lawyers, they pledged to stand up for their shared values in order to break away from the cycle of corruption in the justice system and change the Zimbabwe criminal justice system for the better.

In Zimbabwe, the court is required, in certain instances, to hand down a death sentence. Under the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act of Zimbabwe, this mandatory death sentence is imposed upon all persons convicted of murder. In November 2009, Sheperd Mazango, of Harare, was convicted of murder and subsequently sentenced to death, as required of the Court under law. Through his lawyer, IBJ-Zimbabwe Fellow, Innocent Maja, he is challenging the constitutionality of the death sentence and its compulsory application, and petitioning that the death penalty be replaced by alternative, yet equally severe, legal sentences.

Specifically, the case against the state argues that the death penalty offends human dignity, constitutes inhumane and degrading punishment, and amounts to an arbitrary deprivation of life, all in breach of express or implicit provisions of the Zimbabwe Constitution. In addition to the aforementioned constitutional violations, the fact that a sentence of death is mandatory also denies citizens of their right to fair trial, violates the principle of separation of powers by depriving the judiciary of one of their essential functions, and, in practice, discriminates against indigent accused persons.

The petitioner describes hanging, the method used in Zimbabwe, as “horrendous, barbaric, inhumane, brutal, and uncivilized.” It focuses on the significant delays characteristic of Zimbabwe’s death row, stating that delays in execution lead to anxiety and severe emotional and physical trauma, particularly given current prison conditions. The case centers on the idea that prisoners retain some rights, even after conviction. Most fundamentally, under Zimbabwe’s Constitution, it maintains that all citizens have a right to be free from arbitrary deprivation of life and a right not to be subjected to cruel, inhumane and degrading punishments.

Though the last execution happened in 2003, currently, there are at least 49 prisoners on death row at Harare Central Prison. In the past, executions have been suspended for years due to a lack of a public hangman. While they wait, prisoners on death row have to deal with horrendous prison conditions. In Zimbabwe, twenty-five men are held in a single nine meters by four meters cell. Food portions are meager and consist of barely edible or spoilt food. Unsanitary conditions in both the over-crowded cells and the kitchen threaten the wellbeing of all prisoners.

Innocent became involved in this case after a junior lawyer at his law firm, assigned to the matter on a pro bono basis, represented Mazango during the trial in which he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Immediately, they decided to challenge the death penalty based on his sentence. For the purposes of monitoring the progress of the case closely and media interface, it was filed through Maja and Associates, Innocent’s law firm. Thus far, an application to the court has been filed, and both Innocent and Mazango await the state’s response, while the legal team prepares heads of argument to file with the court.

A number of state-sponsored Zimbabwe newspapers have featured Sheperd Mazango’s case, giving it a fair amount of in-state media attention. Recently, international newspapers have also expressed interest in the case. This attention comes as a result of interest and awareness in Zimbabwe on the rights of the accused. Conversely, the case and the media attention it receives are likely to attract a wider audience to the debate on the death penalty and rights retained by the accused in Zimbabwe.

According to Innocent, “Most indigent persons in Zimbabwe, who cannot afford legal counsel, are given inexperienced lawyers to represent them. Oftentimes, this leads to conviction and death sentences. It is a denial of justice. The death penalty is atrocious, in that it takes away human life. Once a human life is taken away, the rights of that person are taken away as well. The mode of killing (i.e. hanging) is horrendous, inhumane, and degrading. It is torturous.”

The month of May will be rich of colorful events in Zimbabwe. From May 14th-16th, a legal defense training will be conducted in Harare, with the aim to build on last year’s training conference by training the core group of IBJ volunteer lawyers at a more advanced level. All 40 members of the team of volunteer lawyers - who, along with IBJ fellows ‘efforts, have defended more than 130 detainees last year - will gather to discuss ways to leverage the existing legal framework to ensure systematic protection of the rights of the accused, in particular early access to counsel, freedom from torture and speedy trial. Lawyers from the Legal Aid Directorate, the State-sponsored legal aid organ, will engage with private lawyers on ways to strengthen the existing legal aid system and to expand access to justice to provinces, where legal needs remain widely unmet. The training will be led by Anthony Natale, a practicing trial lawyer for 30 years. Presently, he is a Supervising Assistant Federal Public Defender in Miami, Florida and the training coordinator for the Federal Defender Office for the Southern District of Florida. His experience as a criminal defense trainer in China, Vietnam and Zimbabwe will offer a comparative approach and inspire Zimbabwean lawyers to identify within their own laws provisions that can be leveraged to ensure speedy justice.

Above: The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe in Harare (Photo by Florence Chatira)

The training will promote an interactive approach where lawyers will be put in the situation to develop the theory of the case, interview a client and cross-examine witnesses. IBJ International Program Director, Sanjeewa Liyanage, and IBJ Zimbabwe Fellows, Innocent Maja and John Burombo will appeal to lawyers’ inner values and urge them to take action to improve the fair and speedy delivery of justice across the country. At the end of the training, lawyers will be offered the possibility to take pro-bono cases to stem the tide of the country’s legal needs. The last day of the training will be devoted to identifying and training senior lawyers become instructors/trainers themselves. The hope is to empower local lawyers with a set of teaching skills so that they can themselves later replicate legal defense trainings and mentor their peers throughout the country. Next regional training session in the Fall 2010 will integrate these local instructors in order to increase the sustainability of the training approach.

Above: The Mission Statement of the Zimbabwe Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

To ensure that Zimbabwean lawyers are able to learn “on the job”, follow-up one-on-one mentoring sessions will be conducted at IBJ’s Defender Resource Center in Harare on May 17th and 18th. Anthony Natale will spend time with lawyers to dissect the nuances of their case and help them more fully utilize the portfolio of lessons drawn from the training and the criminal defense handbook. The goal is to provide individualized and innovative solutions to challenges that arise from specific cases and help the accused get the most professional defense possible - especially in cases featuring homicide or other serious crime that could result in the death penalty.

As access to legal aid crucially lacks in provinces, the goal of the series of trainings is also to increase the total number of lawyers trained by reaching out to new areas where IBJ was not present before. Following activities in Harare, the IBJ team will head to Bulawayo to conduct a legal defense training on May 22nd and 23rd. Zimbabwe’s second biggest city, Bulawayo has a rich legal tradition which IBJ hopes to build upon to promote access to justice in Matabeleland North Province. The training will focus on increasing the capability of provincial lawyers to provide competent defenses to accused persons, particularly indigents, of which has been a problematic issue for many Zimbabweans. The training will explore a plethora of legal concepts such as cross-examination and procedures to prevent torture against prisoners, helping the participating lawyers in garnering invaluable skills and building a provincial movement in favor of the protection of the rights of the accused.

Above: Zimbabwean street vendors (Photo by Florence Chatira)

This series of trainings will be an opportunity to intensify awareness-raising and community-building activities by engaging with local partners, meeting lawyers, observing trials and visiting prisons.

IBJ-Zimbabwe Fellows, Innocent Maja and John Burombo, recently held an interview with Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s SFM on the importance of the implementation of IBJ’s rights awareness campaign in Zimbabwe. The 30-minute interview, with SFM’s Tashinga Masawi, was held on 19th March and aired on SFM’s programme Morning Mirror on 22nd March. This interview was a follow-up to the roundtable discussion held by IBJ on 18th March to strategize on the implementation of the rights awareness campaign.

During the engaging interview, the Fellows commenced by outlining IBJ’s mandate and objectives. They outlined and explained IBJ’s approach, using the three-pillar programming consisting of defender capacity building, criminal justice reform and human rights awareness. The Fellows then outlined the rights available under the Constitution of Zimbabwe to protect people who are believed to have committed criminal offences. These include, among others, the protection against arbitrary arrest; being promptly informed of the reason for an arrest; being allowed to engage a lawyer without delay; being brought before court without undue delay; the entitlement to bail; and the entitlement to a fair trial without delay.

After outlining these rights, the Fellows then outlined the strategies IBJ was to utilize to implement the rights awareness campaign. These included use of dramas and movies, use of the print and electronic media, use of posters and leaflets, use of manuals, use of t-shirts and other regalia, putting up of billboards and doing road shows.

In conclusion, the Fellows emphasized the need for citizens to be made aware of their Constitutional rights. They stressed the importance of rights awareness in its capacity to empower citizens to enable them to exercise their rights. This would, in turn, help ensure that citizens are able to access justice by asserting these rights.

IBJ-Zimbabwe Fellows, Innocent Maja and John Burombo, recently held a roundtable discussion with its partner organizations, LRF and ZACRO, journalists and private lawyers to strategize on how to implement IBJ’s rights awareness campaign in Zimbabwe. During the engaging and fruitful discussion, held on 18 March in Harare, the participants were able to identify the main areas requiring rights awareness in Zimbabwe. These included issues related to arrest, search and seizure, access to legal counsel, appearance before court timeously, bail, institutional reforms, legal aid, timeous execution of cases and empowerment of citizens to assert their rights.

After identifying these areas, the officers then proposed strategies on how to implement the campaign. They agreed that it was important to identify the particular target groups for the campaign to come up with specific strategies for each group. This would entail using clearly focused mechanisms. These mechanisms included use of dramas and movies, use of the print and electronic media to demystify the rights, use of posters and leaflets, use of target group-specific manuals, use of t-shirts and other regalia, putting up of billboards and carrying out of road shows to reach out to all communities. The participants also believed there was need to engage other state institutions, like the police, and have them participate in the campaign as well. It was agreed that this would go a long way in building a culture of respect for human rights.

The participants then came up with specific action plans for the implementation of these strategies. It was agreed that an e-group for all participants be created to ensure that the commitments agreed upon are followed up and implemented. Participants expressed gratitude at the hosting of the discussion by IBJ, with one participant commenting that the “discussion atmosphere was good and enabling.”

His name is Prince Mavaro. At the time of arrest, he was 23 year-old and married with a child aged 1. As his wife was unemployed, he was the sole breadwinner of the family. In May 2008, he was arrested on charges of unlawful entry. Prince could not afford to engage a lawyer to defend his legal rights. He stayed in remand prison for 10 months before IBJ fellow John Burombo started assisting him.During interrogations, he was severely assaulted by the police: he was tied up and beaten under the feet and on the knees with baton sticks and bottles. For several weeks, he sustained a series of injuries, including swollen feet, which made it very difficult for him to stand and walk. He spent almost three weeks in police custody before he was taken to a court of law. He pleaded not guilty to the charge and complained to the court of the ill-treatment he had suffered at the hands of the police but no action was taken. He was remanded in custody.

At that time, the remand prison was going through a serious crisis, including overcrowding, food shortages, and lack of access to medical treatment. Inmates barely had a single decent meal per day and diseases like pellagra and cholera were rampant. The last truck which transported the prisoners to and from courts broke down in May 2008, leaving them enable to attend trial. Prisoners were therefore continually remanded in custody in absentia.

When John commenced legal assistance the main concern was to get Prince out of custody. He applied for bail but it was denied. With the court system seriously dysfunctional, the State was taking a considerable time to bring the matter to trial and Prince continued to be remanded in custody, leaving his wife and baby totally vulnerable. John therefore decided to apply for a refusal of the further remand of Prince pending trial. In March 2009, such application was made to the court. After considering all submissions, the court upheld the application. Prince was discharged and released from custody. He almost spent one year in remand prison. He could barely hide his happiness and gratefulness at recovering freedom after such a long time away from his wife and 1-year old baby.

Mukarati Farayi is 21-years old. He got arrested in February 2009 on two counts of unlawful entry and theft. He was not able to engage the services of a lawyer. By the time IBJ Zimbabwe Legal Fellow John Burombo started assisting him, he had spent 8 months in remand in the most adverse and inhumane conditions.Orphaned of his two parents, he grew up with his maternal grandmother and his 6-years-old brother who is deaf and mute. Before his arrest, he was the family’s sole breadwinner, doing low-paid part-time jobs here and there. His grandmother could not afford to visit him in remand prison.

When he first met John, he expressed his concern at the welfare of his family in his absence, particularly his brother who is at school. John promised him to do all he could to assist him. John immediately filed an application for bail. Mukarati was granted bail of US$50. Unfortunately, neither him nor his family could afford to pay such an amount of money.

But John did not get discouraged for all that. He tried to have the bail reduced and pushed for the trial to commence. However, because of the court system congestion, nothing happened. John then filed an application for refusal of further remand since the State took a long time to commence the proceedings. The court upheld the application. Mukarati was released and re-united with his grandmother and young brother after 8 months spent in remand prison. He could barely hide his delight.

Above: IBJ Legal Fellow strives to provide committed counsel to vulnerable prisoners in Zimbabwe. (Photo by Florence Chatira)

IBJ-Zimbabwe Fellows, Innocent Maja and John Burombo, recently held a roundtable discussion with officers from the Legal Aid Directorate (hereafter “LAD”), the government entity responsible for legal aid, with a view to identify ways of improving legal aid accessibility in Zimbabwe. The frank and engaging discussion, which occurred on 22 October, gave lawyers from the LAD a platform to voice their opinions on the challenges they are facing in their work, including lack of resources, lack of appreciation of the Directorate by other actors of the criminal justice system, poor conditions of service and lack of awareness of legal aid by citizens. Summarizing the discussion, one participant admitted the discussion “explored issues I had not thought about.”

After outlining the challenges being faced by the Directorate, the lawyers proposed ways to help improve the legal aid system. They agreed that that there was need to decentralize legal aid provision to other outlying areas of Zimbabwe, initially by having circuits and, eventually, establishing proper legal aid centres.

They also agreed that there was need to carry out a comprehensive rights awareness campaign to educate people about their right to legal representation. This would entail using both the print and electronic media, carrying out outreach programmes and utilizing community leaders like chiefs and members of parliament as a channel of communication. It was agreed that adequate funding of the Directorate was essential for it to be properly functional. They believed there was need to engage other criminal justice arms to make them appreciate and value the work of the Directorate.

The Legal Aid Directorate expressed its willingness to work with IBJ and with the other stakeholders of the criminal justice system to ensure justice for all citizens. This is an encouraging step as the Legal Aid Directorate was, until then, almost exclusively focused on civil law issues, the provision of criminal legal aid being restricted to serious cases such as murder. IBJ will continue to provide the necessary platform for this common goal to be achieved.

Above: Light moments. From Left to Right: Nelson Zvidai (Legal Aid Directorate Director), John Tawanda Burombo (IBJ Fellow) and Innocent Maja (IBJ Fellow and Country Manager) (Photo by Florence Chatira)

Above: Legal Aid Directorate Director, Nelson Zvidzai and IBJ Fellow and Country Manager Innocent Maja engaged in a candid discussion. (Photo by Florence Chatira).

Above: IBJ Project Administrator, Florence Chatira, finishing up preparations for the roundtable discussion. (Photo by John Burombo)

During a three day seminar from August 28-30, International Bridges to Justice organized and facilitated a pioneer criminal defense skills training involving 64 lawyers from in and around the capital city of Zimbabwe, Harare. Spearheaded by IBJ lead trainer Anthony Natale (a practicing trial lawyer from the Miami Federal Office), and assisted by Karen Tse (IBJ Founder and CEO), Innocent Maja (IBJ Zimbabwe Senior Fellow and Country Manager), Professor Geoff Feltoe (University of Zimbabwe Law Professor), and Alec Muchadehama (a leading human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe), local lawyers engaged in exercises aimed at enhancing their knowledge of the practical skills involved in criminal defense, as well as their knowledge of the Zimbabwe’s criminal procedures.

Using innovative and interactive exercises, the training focused on increasing the capability of local lawyers to provide competent defenses to accused persons, of which has been a problematic issue for many Zimbabweans. They explored a plethora of legal concepts such as cross-examination and procedures to prevent torture against prisoners, helping the participating lawyers in garnering invaluable skills and experience. Summarizing the training for many, one of the participants concluded, “this has made us believe that it is not extraordinary men and women who change the course of history, but ordinary men and women with extraordinary skills and beliefs.”