Introduction

24 August 2020

Zimbabwean authorities have thwarted a peaceful anti-corruption protest which was planned for today and launched a witch-hunt against political and human rights activists suspected of being behind the planned demonstration, Amnesty International said today.

By Tafadzwa Munjoma

Amnesty International is concerned with threats by Zimbabwe’sDeputy Minister of Defence, Victor Matemadanda, “to unleashsecurity forces on the protestors” in response to an allegedplanned mass protest in the country. Other senior governmentofficials have made similar threats of the use of force shouldZimbabweans go into the streets to protest.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

7 july 2020

Amnesty International Public Statement on 26 June

On 16 June 1976 In Soweto, South Africa, thousands of schoolchildren took to the streets to protest about the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of them were shot down; and in the two weeks of protest that followed, more than a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand injured.

“Southern African governments must ensure the protection and well-being of persons with albinism, who are increasingly vulnerable amid the COVID-19 crisis as lockdowns across the region hinder access to healthcare facilities and skin cancer clinics as well as vital sunscreen.”

In response to today’s court decision to deny bail for three female leaders from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change – Alliance (MDC-Alliance) and remand them in police custody, Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southern Africa said:

Every day, all over the world, people make one of the most difficult decisions in their lives: to leave their homes in search of a safer, better life.