The African Centre for Law & Justice (ACLJ) office in Harare, Zimbabwe, is preparing for a major engagement in Zimbabwe’s constitution-drafting process.  A Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) led by parliamentarians from the three main political parties is managing the process, which has so far been delayed by several months due to political and funding suspicions and funding shortages. Under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) of September 2008, which formed the present transitional national unity government led by President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai established in February 2009, the country was supposed to have a draft constitution ready for a referendum by November 2009 and a new constitution by July 2010. To help in funding, thirteen donors have gathered $21.8 million for constitution-making. The funds will be managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In a newly drawn schedule, COPAC’s public outreach meetings to gather the views of citizens are now set to begin on April 10th.

The new schedule recently set is as follows:

COPAC’s first public outreach meetings:  April 10th to May 24th.

Second and final phase of public outreach meetings:  May 22nd to June 26th.

Second all-stakeholders conference:  August 24th and 27th - to produce a final report that will be used for the referendum.

Referendum - October or November 2010.

Knowing the fractious nature of the involved parties, Douglas Mwonzvora, co-Chairperson of COPAC from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirais’ MDC-T party recently said, “These dates are still subject to revision.” The delayed outreaches have granted the Church brief time to produce literature and conduct educational outreach to inform Christians on constitutional values and engagement. To provide constitutional legal leadership to the Churches, the ACLJ-Zimbabwe has thus started engagement meetings with key Church-based stakeholders and the government ministry in charge of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs. ACLJ-Zimbabwe is also working to help the Church in defining the key principles of constitutional interest to be secured in the constitution.

The Women Weapons of Warfare and Christian Mothers’ Voice, independent groupings of Christian women working with the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, are mobilizing prayer and education outreaches on March 15th.  The Zimbabwe National Revival Initiative (ZINRI) has moved in to sustain and broker working reconciliation among the fractious groups within the Church, political parties, and civil society. The Catholic Peace and Justice Commission has also moved ahead of COPAC to disseminate information in all provinces.

The key areas of concern in the church among other things are as follows:

• Life begins at conception and it should be preserved.
• Marriage is a union between one man and one woman.
• Women should be given the right to get birth certificates and passports for their children.
• Capital punishment.

Report by Pastor Vicky Mpofu
ACLJ-Zimbabwe Program Facilitator