Home #StopThePVOBill Repressive Bill Criminalizes Civil Society Work

Repressive Bill Criminalizes Civil Society Work

by Bustop TV News

By Bustop TV

If signed into law the ‘unconstitutional’ PVO Bill will criminalize the operations of  local and foreign non-profit organisations operating in the country, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has said.

The PVO amendment bill was approved by cabinet in August 2021 and gazetted in November 2021. Since its approval the bill has been roundly condemned for its authoritarian nature as it threatens democracy and disrupts NGOs offering humanitarian assistance.

In its analysis of the PVO Amendment Bill, ZLHR slammed several unconstitutional provisions of the bill which have numerous penalties that will result in the ‘over-regulation’ of the civil sector.

“Lack of security for continued operations of NPOs – There is a requirement to apply and potentially re-register with the Registrar of PVOs when there are, even minor, organisational changes. The relationship between the power of the Registrar on registration and the PVO Board is not well articulated.

“It creates an opportunity for a government functionary to refuse registration to NPOs working on legitimate human rights, good governance and rule of law initiatives. There is no clarification on the status of NPOs pending the outcome of registration processes, which should be a simple notification process and legal status presumed until declared otherwise,” ZLHR’s analysis reads.

Mnangagwa has in the past accused private voluntary organisations and NGOs of partaking in partisan politics which is outside their mandate and Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi claimed NGOs operating in the country were pushing a regime change agenda.

Mnangagwa said by amending the PVO Bill such ‘anomalies’ would have been ‘corrected’.

However operations of non-profit organisations will be further threatened and criminalized if the bill is enacted as any support to a political party’s member can be interpreted as ‘political lobbying’. 

“Criminalisation of civil society work and punitive civil liability – The Bill seeks to criminalise NPOs for such vague grounds as “supporting or opposing any political party or candidate in a presidential, parliamentary or local government election”. This can potentially affect civil and political rights. More particularly section 67 of the Constitution that guarantees political rights. The Bill allows for the imposition of civil penalty orders requiring defaulting PVOs to pay a fixed penalty amount in addition to any other criminal or non-criminal penalties imposed under the Act or any other law.”

This article was produced with financial support of the Content Creators Network ZW.

Related Articles