President Mugabe, a champion of human rights

President Robert Mugabe has always been a champion of human rights and democracy despite his detractors professing ignorance to this fact.

Reports from some sections of the media have it that United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean women's rights activists, Tawananyasha Widows and Orphans Christian Organisation last week petitioned the Zimbabwean embassy in London protesting against the abuse of women's rights by the Government.

Their petition titled 'My Right to Vote/Not Your Right to Rape' exposes how these activists are out of touch with reality.

Organizers of the protests should be encouraged to get their facts right before exposing their ignorance to the world.

From their report, the activists claimed that there was political violence against women in Zimbabwe.
Contrary to what these protestors were alleging, violence of any form is actually being denounced in Zimbabwe.  
The Constitution of Zimbabwe is the supreme law of the land which protects the rights and safety of women. One will then wonder where exactly these activists are basing their argument on. In actual fact, women in Zimbabwe are being empowered through a number of economic projects which seek to reduce the gender disparities which existed since pre-independence.

Their petition also talked of the right to vote by Diasporans.
It should be noted that every Zimbabwean citizen has the right to cast their votes. If these activists are serious about participating in the next harmonised elections scheduled for 2018, they should be encouraged to come back home and register to vote.

As stipulated in the Constitution of Zimbabwe, elections are held after every five years, and any citizen who qualifies to vote is given the opportunity to select their leader through the ballot box.     

In short, voting in Zimbabwe is open for all citizens, what is only needed is for the electorate to follow the correct procedures.

In addition, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) is actually encouraging people to go and register to vote ahead of 2018 elections.

In 2008, at the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Mugabe questioned what protection small countries were getting from false allegations of violations of the rule of law and human rights by those whom he said were international perpetrators of genocide, acts of aggression and mass destruction.

For so long, many western countries had been spreading false information about human rights violation in Zimbabwe.

Unlike what the UK women's activists were alleging, Government respects human rights and evidence on the ground has proved the verity of that assertion.

In August this year, the United Nations commended Zimbabwe for its significant progress in implementation of human rights.

The United Nations resident coordinator, Mr Bishow Parajuli was quoted saying, "Through the Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF) 2016-2020, the United Nations Country Team is jointly supporting the Government to implement, monitor and report on its human rights treaty obligations in a consultative and participatory manner.

"Good progress has been made, and we are hopeful that these efforts will translate human rights from the clauses of the various conventions into lived realities for the people of Zimbabwe."

On the other hand it is worthy to note that, there are a number of underhand campaigns by civil society groups that might happen during this pre-election period.

These women activists might have been campaigning and furthering the agenda of a certain political party, through decampaigning Government efforts.