Events

This event will mark the launch of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum's report on Transitional Justice Outreach to the Diaspora, which aims to provide a platform for the Zimbabwean diaspora to take part in addressing the transitional justice question in Zimbabwe.

Last year Zimbabwe Watch helped the Forum to organise a workshop for the Zimbabwean diaspora in the Netherlands. The input from this workshop was included in the report.

The Report launch will provide an opportunity to consider and evaluate recommendations for transitional justice in the country, in an important year for Zimbabwe with a constitutional referendum and national elections looming.

The event will take place at Chatham House in London, and has HE Moses Mzila Ndlovu as special guest.

Participants:

- HE Moses Mzila Ndlovu, Co-chair of the Ministry of National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration, Zimbabwe
- McDonald Lewanika, Co-ordinator, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
- Primrose Matambanadzo, Chair, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
- Chair: Margo Picken, Visiting Senior Fellow, LSE

Monday 30 April, 17:00 to 18:00

Chatham House, London

For more information and registration http://www.chathamhouse.org/events/view/182736

Zimbabwe has a debt of over $7 billion, owed to international institutions such as the IMF and World Bank and UK government. Campaigners in Zimbabwe are calling for the debt to be audited, to find out who loans did and did not benefit, and learn lessons for the future.

Jubilee Debt Campaign organises a discussion for Zimbabwean diaspora living in the UK on where the debt comes from and what can be done about it. Speakers will include:

Tim Jones, Jubilee Debt Campaign (author of the report Uncovering Zimbabwe's Debt)

Zimbabwean academics and civil society leaders.

To book your place at this event please email info@jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk

Saturday 11 February 2012, 13:30-16:00

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8EP

Directions to Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church are available here:

http://bloomsbury.org.uk/home/page/our_location/

The report 'Uncovering Zimbabwe's debt' by Jubilee Debt Campaign, Zimbabwe Europe Network and Eurodad is available at:

www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/zimbabwereport

VPRO Import is screening the impressive documentary ‘Mugabe and the White African’, in which Michael Campbell is being followed. Campbell is one of the last remaining white farmers in Zimbabwe en has to deal with accomplices of President Robert Mugabe who want to remove him from his farm.

In a law suit he accuses Mugabe and his government of discrimination and violation of human rights. In the meantime other white farmers are violently removed from their houses and Campbell and his family have to deal with intimidation and violence

Wednesday 11 January, 23.00 hours, Channel: Nederland 2

ZEN will organise a conference in the European Parliament in Brussels on 6 December on the theme "New Constitution in Zimbabwe - the way towards free and fair elections?".

Key note speaker will be Professor Lovemore Madhuku, Chairperson, National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). The meeting will take place in Room A1E-2 at 0930-1200 hours.

See for more info www.zimbabweeurope.org

As the meeting will take place in the European Parliament you need to register for this event, you can do so by sending an email to tor@zimbabweeurope.org

After 'Mugabe & the White African' a new movie on mr. Mugabe has been released. After a first screening in Cape Town last June, ‘Robert Mugabe... What happened’ will be shown at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) later this month. The movie tries to show Mugabe's life and "it dramatically illustrates his successful liberation and development of the country but also his ruthless and cunning retention of power at all costs."

Feel free to attend and watch this impressive movie.

Shows are on November 21 at 22:30, November 25 at 11:00 and November 26 at 20:30. Costs are 10 euros, more information on the movie and tickets can be found here.

More information on the movie can be found on the movie's website and the IMDB website.

Attention: it is not possible to reserve for this workshop because all places are taken.

During the upcoming EVS Africa Day Zimbabwe Watch will organise a workshop on the democratic transition in Zimbabwe, with leading Zimbabwean scholar and activist Brian Raftopoulos and Dutch Member of Parliament Frans Timmermans. Registration for this workshop has now started here!

Facilitated by Dutch journalist Kees Broere, Raftopoulos and Timmermans will discuss the democratic transition in Zimbabwe, with a specific focus on the role of the international community. Raftopoulos currently chairs Zimbabwe Institute, a partner of Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD). Timmermans is member of parliament for the PvdA (Labour Party). Questions asked and discussed will be: Which crucial reforms need to be implemented and what are the challenges for Zimbabwe’s democratic transition? How can the international community contribute to this transition and in what way do their policies undermine this process?

Date: Saturday, 29 October 2011
Time: 15.45 – 16.45
Location: Haagse Hogeschool, Johanna Westerdijkplein 75, The Hague.
(next to Den Haag HS (Holland Spoor train station)
Language: English
Admission: €12,50 or €5,- (youth under 26 years)

The Zimbabwe Europe Network (ZEN) will host a civil society delegation in September, which will visit the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Poland and Switzerland.

The main meeting in Brussels will be in the European Parliament on Tuesday 20 September from 10.00 – 13.00 hours. The meeting titled ‘Democracy in Zimbabwe – Taking stock three years after the power sharing deal’ will have decision makers from the EU and civil society from Zimbabwe and Europea discuss the current state of affairs and the way forward.

The meeting will also look at the role of diamonds in Zimbabwe.

Speakers include MEPs Olle Schmidt, Alain Cadec, and Judith Sargentini, Zimbabwean Minister of Healing Hon. Moses Mzila Ndlovu and civil society leaders Machinda Marongwe, Brian Penduka, Dewa Mahvinga, Farai Maguwu, and Gideon Shoko.

For more info visit the website of the Zimbabwe Europe Network

Expert meeting ‘Democratische transitie in Zimbabwe’
Thursday september 15th, 2011
12.00 - 13.30 hrs
Huis van Democratie en Rechtstaat
Hofweg 1
2511 AA The Hague

On the 3rd anniversary of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), in which ZANU and MDC agreed to share power and implement democratic reforms, an audience of well informed policy makers, politicians and NGO representatives together with Zimbabwean speakers will discuss:

What is the current status of the democratic transition in Zimbabwe?
Zimbabwe Watch and the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) organize an expert meeting to answer this question, looking at the status of constitutional reforms, election preparations, and the role of the region.

Three subjects
Three short introductions, followed by a discussion with the audience:

• Constitutional Reforms
  Mr. Gift Marunda, National Coordinator Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC)
• Election Preparations
  Mr. Dominico Chidakuza, Coordinator of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)
• The role of civil society
  Mr. Brian Penduka, Programs Manager, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum

You are kindly requested to register by sending an email to: events_nl@epd.eu.

IS Academy seminar

Land reform, Food security and Stability in Africa: lessons from Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya

The Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) has created a new agrarian structure in Zimbabwe. In this seminar, Prosper Matondi (Ruzivo Trust) will discuss what this land reform has brought Zimbabwe, both from a national perspective as well as the perspective of the land reform beneficiaries. What opportunities and constraints do they experience in developing their new farms and livelihoods? What has been the effect of the land reforms on national food security and peace and stability in the country? Lionel Cliffe will contextualize Matondi’s account by comparing the Zimbabwean experience with post-colonial land reforms in Kenya and South Africa.

Prosper Matondi (PhD Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) is the director of Ruzivo Trust, a Harare-based research and advocacy NGO working on land issues in Zimbabwe.

Lionel Cliffe is Emeritus Professor of Politics; Honorary Research Fellow, Geography at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Leeds (UK).

Wednesday 22 June 2011

09.30-11.30(09.30-10.00 welcome and coffee)

Oude Perszaal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

This seminar is organized by the African Studies Centre as part of the IS Academy's series of lectures, together with LandAc.

Language: English

Venue: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bezuidenhoutseweg 67, Den Haag. Please bring your passport.

Registration: 20 June at the latest at: DAF@minbuza.nl

On the 5th of May Zimbabwean artist Chiwoniso will perform on different freedom festivals in the Netherlands.

As a teenager Chiwoniso impressed with her mix of mbira and hip hop, in both English and Shona. In recent years she became more involved in Shona and the origin and spirituality of traditional Zimbabwean music.

Chiwoniso will perform in Almere, Leeuwarden and Zwolle.

Speaker: Bruce Mutsvairo, Lecturer in Journalism and Mass Communication, Amsterdam University College

The media’s role in a democracy cannot be underestimated. Apart from its critical role of providing a springboard for public debate and deliberation, the media acts as a purposeful watchdog for political transparency and accountability. A deeply-divided, post-conflict setting complicates the media’s role in any given society. This paper assesses the normative functions of the journalism during a post-conflict era with particular reference to the Zimbabwean case.

Taking a cue from Johan Galtung’s peace journalism discourse, I will argue that Zimbabwe has been a victim of grassroots approaches to reporting, which _based on Western hegemonic claims to objectivity focus largely on violence, the perpetrators and major political actors without providing grounds for conflict-minimizing essentialities. In their struggles against Robert Mugabe`s despotism, international media outlets, I shall posit, have created ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ political camps through violence-centered reporting, further dividing the nation. While the tragedies of violence should to be duly reported in the media, journalism in a politically-polarized environment such as Zimbabwe should also advocate for the promotion of peace.

Key words: Conflict, journalism new media technologies, Zimbabwe, International media

Venue: Institute of Social Studies - Aula A
Address: Kortenaerkade 12, Den Haag
Date: Wednesday 27th April
Time: 16:15

For many a career as a lawyer is just like any other career, but being a human rights lawyer under an authoritarian regime may not be an ordinary career. In commemoration of Zimbabwe’s Independence Day on 18 April 2011, the Law Committee of University College Utrecht in association with Zimbabwe Watch will host a Public lecture on defending the rights of others under an authoritarian regime. Two prominent Zimbabwe human rights lawyers, Arnold Tsunga and Alec Muchadehama will deliver the public lecture.

Arnold Tsunga is a prominent human rights lawyer and founding former director of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) now the Director of the Africa Program for the International Commission for Jurists (ICJ). He has vast experience working as a human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe at great personal sacrifice as the work often included arrests and abduction by the army.

Alec Muchadehama has worked for Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights since 2003 defending the many activists, opposition leaders and victims of oppression. Many of his colleagues have fled the country but, despite everything, Alec Muchadehama continues to devote himself to defending human rights in a country that is in a deep state of crisis.

Dutch Foundation Lawyers for Lawyers has awarded him the first Lawyers for Lawyers Award.

Date: Monday 18 April
Time: 17:00 – 18:30
Location: University College Utrecht Auditorium, Campusplein 1

The Lawyers for Lawyers Award will be presented for the first time in Amsterdam on 15 April 2011, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Lawyers for Lawyers.

Muchadehama will receive the award after the seminar ‘Threatened Lawyers: Does international support help?’ Zimbabwean lawyer Arnold Tsunga will be one of the participants in this seminar.

To register for this seminar, visit the site of Lawyers for Lawyers

With nearly sixty debates, workshops and lectures, an extensive cultural programme and a lot of politics the Africa Day is the day for everyone in the Netherlands who has a passion for Africa or international development.

In 2010 Zimbabwe Watch provided the key-note speaker Lovemore Matombo and also organized a workshop. This year Zimbabwe Watch will also organize a workshop, with again very interesting Zimbabwean speakers. More info will appear on this website.

On the 25th of February members and partners of the Zimbabwe Europe Network (ZEN) will meet in Brussels to discuss the possible upcoming elections in Zimbabwe the EU Common Position on the targeted measures. Several Zimbabwe Watch members will participate in the meeting, which will also be open to partners of ZEN.

The meeting will assess the current political situation in Zimbabwe and the achievements of the current Government of National Unity. The meeting will examine the prospects for the upcoming elections and what can be done in Europe to help ensure that these elections are free and fair.
In addition there will be a panel discussion on the EU Common Position on Zimbabwe which is under discussion at present and the decision on its future is to be announced later this month. The discussion will allow the EU representatives to explain how and why they reached their position. Following this, speakers from Zimbabwean and European organisations that favour and oppose the EU Common Measures will give their views.
Representatives from the European Union Commission, from Zimbabwean civil society and from NGOs, including ZEN member organisations, will present. The speakers from Zimbabwe will include:

• Gideon Shoko, Deputy Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
• McDonald Lewanika, Coordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
• Susan Mutambasere, Project Lawyer at the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
• Cephas Zinhumwe, CEO Zimbabwe National Association of NGO's

The conference will be hosted by FOS Belgium at its offices in the Agoragalerij, Grasmarkt 105, from 11.00 to 17.00 hours. The conference is open to ZEN member
organisation representatives and partners and interested individuals.

For more information and participation please contact ZEN secretariat: tor@zimbabweeurope.org

Click here for more details, the program will be uploaded on the ZEN website soon.

On Wednesday February 23 The International Office of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, in cooperation with Zimbabwe Watch, will organize a workshop for the Zimbabwean Diaspora in the Netherlands.

After four successful workshops in the UK the Forum will now conduct a workshop in the Netherlands to gather input from the Zimbabwean Diaspora in the Netherlands.

Kucaca Phulu and Okay Machisa, national chairman and director of Forum member ZimRights, will act as facilitators during the workshop.

For more information you can check the news page or contact Zimbabwe Watch at secr@zimbabwewatch.org.

As a result of the second anniversary of the Government of National Unity a delegation of Zimbabwean civil society leaders will visit Europe. On the 22nd and 23rd of February they will visit the Netherlands and talk to different politicians and policy makers.

More information about the program of the delegation will soon appear on this website.

The AGM of the Zimbabwe Europe Network will take place in Copenhagen. The members of ZEN will evaluate the past year and together with the Zimbabwean partners decide on the focus and strategies for 2011. The Zimbabwe Watch coordinator and some of the Zimbabwe Watch members will attend.

On Monday November 8, Zimbabwe Watch in cooperation with WDO (www.wdoleiden.nl) and the Zimbabwe Europe Network (www.zimbabweeurope.org) organises a debate about Zimbabwe’s ‘blood diamonds’.

The situation in and around Chiadzwa will be discussed, as well as the importance of diamonds for Mugabe’s ZANU PF, and the recent developments in the Kimberley Process, the international diamond certification scheme.

Special guest is Zimbabwean researcher Shamiso Mtisi, coordinator of the Local Focal Point, a group of Zimbabwean civil society organizations who will monitor the situation in Chiadzwa and examine whether Zimbabwe is compliant to the KP standards.

The evening will be chaired by freelance journalist Hans van Scharen, Hugo Knoppert of Zimbawbe Watch will also make a contribution. There might also be a representative of the diamond industry.

Location: Faculty of Social Science, room 1A20 (Pieter de la Court building)
Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden (close to Leiden Central Station)

When: Monday 8 november, 19:00 hours

Entrance: Free

Israel will host the Kimberley Process Plenary Meeting in Jeruzalem between the 1st and 4th of November.

During this meeting Zimbabwe’s diamond export discussions, and adherence to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme standards, will continue.

The report ‘A Place in the Sun’ is the result of a 2009 special observation mission to Zimbabwe of Lawyers withour Borders and other organisations. On October 29 the findings of this mission will be presented during a public meeting organized by Lawyers without Borders.

Special guest is Chris Mhike, lawyer and human rights activist in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Watch coordinator Hugo Knoppert will also give a presentation.

Location: Koster Advocaten, Dreef 22, Haarlem
Time: 13.30 – 15.30

You are kindly asked to register for this event by sending an email to tijl@kadv.nl

For further questions you can contact Margot Span of Koster Advocaten, 023-512 5025, email: span@kadv.nl

Op 15 september zullen verschillende organisaties in Nederland gehoor geven aan de oproep van de Verenigde Naties de Democratie in Nederland te vieren, zoals in verschillende landen in de wereld ook zal gebeuren op diezelfde dag. In de ochtend is er een seminar voor experts uit de wetenschap en de praktijk en in de middag is er een publiek programma met onder meer de uitreiking van de Democracy Ribbons 2010.

Tijdens de dag wordt gekeken naar verschillende perspectieven op democratie en ook het Zimbabwaanse perspectief zal aan bod komen. De dag valt samen met het 2-jarig bestaan van de GPA en er zal ook gekeken worden naar de ontwikkelingen in Zimbabwe in de afgelopen twee jaar.

McDonald Lewanika (Coordinator Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition) en Irene Petras (Directrice Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights) zullen deelnemen aan de discussie (o.v.)

'Zimbabwe two years after signing the Global Political Agreement: Will Democracy Prevail?'

As part of the International Day of Democracy celebrations in The Netherlands, Zimbabwe Watch and the European Partnership for Democracy organize a debate in The Hague with Irene Petras (Director Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights) en McDonald Lewanika (Coordinator Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition).

You are kindly asked to register for this event.

Venue: NIMD, Passage 31, Den Haag
Time: 13.45 - 14.45
Language: English
Registration: secr@zimbabwewatch.org

‘2nd Anniversary of the signing of the Global Political Agreement – time to celebrate?’

Zimbabwaanse civil society leiders en leden van het Europees Parlement bespreken de situatie in Zimbabwe, mogelijke oplossingen voor de huidige situatie en de relaties tussen Zimbabwe en de Europese Unie. Met o.a. Ana Gomes MP van S&D.

Op 16 en 17 augustus zal in Windhoek, Namibië, de 30e Southern African Development Community (SADC) bijeenkomst plaatsvinden.

Tijdens de top zal onder meer gesproken worden over het feit dat de Zimbabwaanse overheid uitspraken van het SADC hof m.b.t. de onteigening van blanke boeren blijft negeren.

Verder zal ook gekeken worden naar de stand van zaken in Zimbabwe en worden de mogelijkheden voor eventuele verkiezingen verkend.

The lecture of Godfrey Kanyenze on the state of Zimbabwe’s economy is now scheduled for May 11 (from 15.30 to 17.00).

The seminar was originally scheduled for 21 April 2010, but had to be postponed due the disruption to flights because of the volcanic ash cloud.

The lecture takes place at the African Studies Centre (Room 3A06, Pieter de la Court building, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden)

More information can be found on the website of the African Studies Centre

Godfrey Kanyenze, Director of the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe (LEDRIZ), a research think tank of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, has been invited to present a lecture at the African Studies Centre in Leiden on Wednesday 24 April. Kanyenze has been brought to the Netherlands by Zimbabwe Watch partner FNV.

Kanyenze is one of the initiators and the current chairman of the Coordinating Committee of the ANSA initiative (Alternatives to Neo-liberalism in Southern Africa), which was formed in response to the World Bank's Structural Adjustment Programme. It seeks to provide alternative policies and strategies for Southern Africa that are aimed at people-driven, sustainable, human development. Godfrey Kanyenze has published widely on the state of Zimbabwe's economy for the ILO, IOM, UNDP and the Zimbabwean government

In the seminar at the African Studies Centre Kanyenze will provide an overview of the GNU's economic policies and discuss the measures needed for Zimbabwe's hard-hit economy to recover.

For more details, and registration, please visit the website of the African Studies Centre: www.ascleiden.nl