UN human rights chief to visit Zimbabwe
2012-05-05 10:19
Special Report
Civil society groups in Zimbabwe say election delay would do little to dissuade President Robert Mugabe's supporters from voter intimidation.
Geneva - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay will make her first visit to Zimbabwe from 20 t0 25 May, her office said on Friday, accepting an invitation from the Harare government.
During her five-day day visit, Pillay will meet with President Robert Mugabe, the 88-year-old leader widely decried by activists as one of the worst perpetrators of human rights abuses.
Pillay will also meet with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Zimbabwe's justice and foreign affairs ministers, her office said.
In February Human Rights Watch called on world leaders to keep up pressure on Mugabe as activists and government critics in Zimbabwe still suffer arrest and harassment.
The watchdog added that the Mugabe regime has made no effort to give justice to victims of political violence over the last decade.
Pillay will also meet with civil society leaders as well as Zimbabwe's commission on human rights.
Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party have ruled since independence from Britain in 1980.
But following failed elections in 2008, he was forced into a power-sharing government with rival Tsvangirai, a move meant to clear the way to new elections.
Despite the unity government, rights activists are frequently arrested or harassed in the course of their work.
- AFP
