European partnership for democracy, EPD

Zimbabwe conference in Brussels as constitutional reform delayed further

A special parliamentary committee leading Zimbabwe`s constitutional reform process has postponed the deployment of outreach teams until December and January 2010 to consult citizens on the proposed new constitution, after the programme failed to start as scheduled. (More news on the deployment of the outreach teams can be found here.) 

Pressing parliamentary business, logistical arrangements and only recently resolved funding shortages have been delaying the process. The government is understood to have released US$3.5 million to be used to kick-start the outreach programmes. In addition to the funding shortages, sharp differences have also emerged between the political parties over the writing of the new constitution that threaten to derail the reform process. ZANU-PF has said any new constitution should be based on a draft constitution authored by the main political parties known as the Kariba draft. Civic organizations and the MDC, led by Prime Minister Tsvangirai, are opposed to it, stating that the document leaves largely untouched wide-ranging Presidential powers.

Parliament started discussing the restrictive AIPPA and POSA legislation limiting the media sphere and freedom of association in support of a wide consultation of the wider Zimbabwean public as well as a safe participation of citizens in the Constitutional reform process. The upcoming holiday season and the start of the rainy season in the country, during which time the attention of Zimbabweans is inevitably focused on their lands and the plantation of crops, is another reason for more delays to be expected in the outreach process.

The EPD is continuing its programme in support of the citizens' participation in the Constitutional reform process in conjunction with the Holland based NIMD, the European Commission and Zimbabwean organisations. This project supports civic education and outreach informing the people on a grassroots and Diaspora level throughout all stages of the Constitutional reform process: consultation phase, drafting phase, discussion of a draft Constitution in Parliament, the pre-referendum phase and the post-referendum phase.

Past EPD cooperation with the Zimbabwe Europe Network (ZEN) led to an invitation for EPD to observe the second AGM on 18 November 2009. The EPD is considering becoming a member of this network established in Brussels in October 2008. The Zimbabwe Europe Network functions as an information hub for Zimbabwean organizations and EU institutions as well as EU Member States by providing information and lobby activities on topics ranging from macro-economic stabilization and donor re-engagement to the return of the Zimbabwean Diaspora. With its work over the last year, ZEN received the qualification `The people`s embassy` in Brussels by one of the Zimbabwean participants to the AGM. The ZEN is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and through membership fees.

For more information on ZEN, please visit the website at www.zimbabweeurope.org

For more information on the EPD work in Zimbabwe, please contact mariekevandoorn@eupd.eu