African governments desert Mugabe over workers' rights abuses: Zimbabwe could face International Court of Justice

Solidarity with Zimbabwe's workers

Standards Committee conclusions

ILO, Geneva, June 2008

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN's workplace rights arm, is a step closer to referring the Government of Zimbabwe to the International Court of Justice. In its hardest hitting statement ever on the crisis-torn country, the ILO's Committee on the Application of Standards will, on Friday 13 June, report to the ILO Governing Body and urge Governments to consider invoking what is known as the 'article 26' complaint procedure.

For the first time ever, not a single African Government stood up for Robert Mugabe's regime as the ILO Committee on the Application of Standards last week condemned attacks on trade unions and specifically the arrests last month of Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe, President and General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).

In its evidence, the TUC set out examples of the brutal torture meted out to trade unionists by the Zimbabwean government. TUC member of the ILO Governing Body Simon Steyne recounted the injuries suffered by ZCTU leaders in Harare's police cells after a demonstration in September 2006:

'Wellington [Chibebe] required seven stitches to the head. His broken arm required a steel plate and sixteen stitches, his two broken fingers pins and stitching. He now has only partial use of his left hand. ... Because of his excessive bleeding from the head, the doctors insisted Wellington should be treated immediately. In fact he was detained under police guard in the hospital, on a drip, and was finally operated on four days later.

'The other colleagues - including Lovemore [Matombo], who had a broken finger, Lucia, who had lacerations all over her body, Moses Ngondo who had a broken arm and a broken leg, Denis Chiwara who also had a broken leg and rupture from a previous operation, James Gumbi, who had cuts on his back and buttocks and was unable to sit, George Nkiwani, whose body swollen all over and could not sit either, were returned to the police cells, without treatment.'

Other trade union movements, from neighbouring Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland, spoke out in defence of the ZCTU, and so did the South African employers' organisation and the Governments of Canada and Slovenia (speaking on behalf of the whole European Union). Only the Cuban Government opposed the move, on the procedural grounds that other avenues had not been exhausted.

The complete Standards Committee conclusions follow, along with the speech by TUC member of the ILO Governing Body, Simon Steyne.

Committee on the Application of Standards conclusions

Convention no 87: Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, 1948

Zimbabwe (ratification: 2003). The Committee deeply deplored the persistent obstructionist attitude demonstrated by the Government through its refusal to come before it in two consecutive years and thus seriously hamper the work of the ILO supervisory mechanisms to review the application of voluntarily ratified Conventions. The Committee recalled that the contempt shown by the Government to this Committee and the gravity of the violations observed had led this Committee to decide last year to mention this case in a special paragraph of its report and to call upon the Government to accept a high-level technical assistance mission.

The Committee further deplored the Government's refusal of the high-level technical assistance mission that the Committee had invited it to accept. The Committee observed with profound regret that the comments of the Committee of Experts referred to serious allegations of the violation of the basic civil liberties, including the quasi-systematic arrest and detention of trade unionists following their participation in public demonstrations. In this regard, the Committee further regretted the continual recourse made by the Government to the POSA and lately, to the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act of 2006, in the arrest and detention of trade unionists for the exercise of their trade union activities, despite its calls upon the Government to cease such action. The Committee also observed that the Committee on Freedom of Association continued to examine numerous complaints regarding these serious matters.

The Committee took note with deep concern of the vast information presented it concerning the surge in trade union rights and human rights violations in the country and the ongoing threats to trade unionists' physical safety. In particular, it deplored the recent arrests of Lovemore Matombo and Wellington Chibebe and the massive violence against teachers as well as the serious allegations of arrest and violent assault following the September 2006 demonstrations.

The Committee emphasised that trade union rights could only be exercised in a climate that was free from violence, pressure or threats of any kind. Moreover, these rights were intrinsically linked to the assurance of full guarantees of basic civil liberties, including freedom of speech, security of person, freedom of movement and freedom of assembly. It recalled that it was essential to their role as legitimate social partners that workers' and employers' organizations were able to express their opinions on political issues in the broad sense of the term and that they could publicly express their views of the Government's economic and social policy. The Committee therefore urged the Government to ensure that they are appropriately compensated. It called upon all Governments with missions in the country to be present at the trial of Mr Matombo and Mr Chibebe and follow closely all developments in relation to their case.

The Committee urged the Government to cooperate fully in the future with the ILO supervisory bodies in accordance with the international obligations that it voluntarily assumed by membership in the Organization.

The Committee firmly urged the Government to ensure for all workers and employers full respect for the civil liberties enunciated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights without which freedom of association and trade union rights were void of any meaning. It urged the Government to accept a high-level tripartite, special investigatory mission in this case of flagrant disregard for the most basic freedom of association rights. It urged the other governments that had ratified this Convention to give serious consideration to the submission of an article 26 complaint and called upon the Governing Body to approve a commission of inquiry.

The Committee decided to include its conclusions in a special paragraph of its report. It also decided to mention this case as a case of continued failure to implement the Convention.

Speech by Simon Steyne, UK Worker Member, ILO Governing Body

This afternoon ZCTU General Secretary, Wellington Chibebe, recalled to me the events of September 2006. I think the Committee would wish to hear what he said.

The ZCTU had planned a demonstration on 13 September against the high cost of living and high taxation and to demand the provision of anti-retroviral drugs to HIV sufferers. The police were notified, as required under the Public Order and Security Act. The Congress even asked the police to steward the demonstration and supplied them with information about its route. POSA doesn't actually demand police authorisation for trade union rallies, but in practice it is required. As usual, the police refused.

But in the afternoon of the 12th, the police indicated by phone that the march could go ahead. And from 10 am the next morning, they began to clear the route and to post officers along it, announcing that this was to make way for the demonstration. And so the ZCTU organisers started mobilising demonstrators to assemble at Construction House, the ZCTU Harare regional headquarters.

The demonstration began at 12.30. Immediately, the leaders of the ZCTU and affiliated unions were rounded up by the police and ordered to sit on the road. Two police trucks quickly arrived onto which the leaders were herded. One group was taken to Harare Central Police station. The ZCTU leaders, including President Matombo, General Secretary Chibebe and Lucia Matibenga - Vice-President and now a member of the ILO Governing Body, were taken to Matapi police station. Two at a time, they were ordered into a cell where five men in police uniform were waiting. The prisoners were ordered to sit on the ground and the beatings began. Lucia and our brothers were beaten all over their bodies with heavy, steel-core rubber truncheons for twenty to thirty minutes. After each pair had been beaten, they were taken, bleeding, to the charge room and charged under the Public Order and Security Act with planning an illegal demonstration intended to overthrow a constitutionally elected government. There were about 1500 people at the demonstration.

Wellington, concussed and bleeding heavily from his head, passed out in the charge room. He and the other union leaders were denied medical attention and access to lawyers for two days. Then, on 15 September in the late evening, they were taken by open truck to Pari Hospital. Wellington required seven stitches to the head. His broken arm required a steel plate and sixteen stitches, his two broken fingers pins and stitching. He now has only partial use of his left hand.

But don't think he was treated straight away. Initially doctors refused to treat the injuries as emergencies because they had occurred more than 24 hours earlier. Only after ZCTU lawyers and a member of the NGO, Doctors for Human Rights arrived, were the injured leaders examined. Because of his excessive bleeding from the head, the doctors insisted Wellington should be treated immediately. In fact he was detained under police guard in the hospital, on a drip, and was finally operated on four days later.

The other colleagues - including Lovemore, who had a broken finger, Lucia, who had lacerations all over her body, Moses Ngondo who had a broken arm and a broken leg, Denis Chiwara who also had a broken leg and rupture from a previous operation, James Gumbi, who had cuts on his back and buttocks and was unable to sit, George Nkiwani, whose body swollen all over and could not sit either, were returned to the police cells, without treatment.

The following morning they were brought to court, still with their injuries untreated, granted bail and were able to go to private hospitals for treatment. The Court ruled that the beatings in the cells were to be investigated and the perpetrators brought to book. The Committee may not be surprised to learn that as the police CID was responsible for that investigation, still 20 months after these events, no charge has been brought against the officers who committed the torture, nor those who ordered it.

Wellington's trial was held in secret, in hospital, where his bed substituted for the dock. Afterwards he was also transferred to a private hospital to ensure he was away from the Government controlled clinic. The NGO, Amani Trust, which takes care of victims of violence, funded the treatment.

And just as the cowardly government representatives hide now in the gallery of this room rather than appear before our Committee, the cowardly beatings took place, Mme Chair, in a country that has freely ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98. That is how the Zimbabwe Government uses the Public Order and Security Act, combined with gross and brutal violence, to deny freedom of association and expression to the working people of Zimbabwe.