The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCHR) has condemned the enactment of the “Patriotic Act” by the Zimbabwean government.
The law criminalizes “wilfully injuring the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe” and prescribes, among other sentences, death on anyone convicted of the crime.
The new law, which is known as the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, was assented to by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week.
In a tweet on Monday, the UN High Commission for Human Rights said the law could be used by the Government to weaken civil society. It said:
We regret that Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act has now been signed into law. Risks being misused to target, criminalize and weaken civil society. Open and pluralistic civic space is key for sustainable dev’t: law & policy must facilitate these objectives.
The controversial amendments to Clause 2 (3) read as follows:
Any citizen or permanent resident of Zimbabwe who, within or outside Zimbabwe, intentionally partakes in any meeting, whose object or one of whose objects the accused knows, or has reasonable grounds for believing involves the consideration of or the planning for the implementation or enlargement of sanctions or a trade boycott against Zimbabwe (whether those sanctions or that boycott is untargeted or targets any individual or official, or class of individuals or officials), but whose effects indiscriminately affect the people of Zimbabwe as a whole, or any substantial section thereof shall be guilty of wilfully damaging the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe and liable to…
The Dutch Embassy in Harare, the EU Delegation to Zimbabwe, the US Embassy in Harare, as well as Amnesty International, have all condemned the enactment of the law.
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