Friday, November 20, 2009

Organizations lament the refusal of Zimbabwe to receive the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

Organizations lament the refusal of Zimbabwe to receive the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

09/11/2009

Conectas, in partnership with 24 organizations from 15 countries, sent a letter to the government of Zimbabwe lamenting its last-minute refusal to receive the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak.

The Rapporteur had received an official invitation to carry out a visit from October 28th to November 4th, 2009 in order to investigate the torture practices in the country. In his lay-over in South Africa, the Rapporteur was informed that he could no longer enter Zimbabwe.

In addition, the letter demonstrates a continued concern with the human rights situation in general in Zimbabwe, including with respect to the country’s widespread violence and the arbitrary imprisonment of political leaders and human rights defenders.

The organizations called upon the government of Zimbabwe to put an end to these violations and to cooperate more strongly with the UN instruments.

This initiative is part of the campaign “Friends of Zimbabwe” – learn more about this campaign.

Click here to read the full letter.

Conectas Human Rights - www.conectas.org

1 comment:

John Suarez said...

I join in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and lament the lack of transparency by Mr. Mugabe in denying Manfred Nowak access to see what is taking place there.