Women protest against Zimbabwe law review bias

Zimbabwe's troubled constitution making process has hit another snag after women threatened to disrupt the exercise arguing that it is biased towards men.

Women from across the political divide say they are not happy that the management of the committee in charge of Zimbabwe's second attempt to draft a new constitution since independence in 1980 is led by men.

The three principals in the unity government President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara co chair the management committee of the constitution making process.

Below them is a Parliamentary Select Committee also co-chaired by male legislators from the three parties that make up the unity government.

The disgruntled women almost disrupted a training workshop for the more than 600 people, who will make up the outreach teams that were being deployed on Thursday.

We call upon the co-chairpersons to redress the situation before of the beginning of the outreach programme by co-opting women into different committees to address gender parity, said Women's Affairs, Gender and Employment Development Minister Olivia Muchena after the protests.

Zimbabwe has already ratified the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and this should be respected. There was along stand off as male delegates objected to the issues raised by the women activists.

But the co-chairperson of the Constitution Select Committee Mr Douglas Mwonzora said women concerns would be taken on board.

"We are going to attend to that issue because its a genuine issue which all stakeholders should address. We are going to engage political parties and the Management Committee over that matter.

"This is because the issue of women has potential budgetary implications on our side if we ignore them," he said.

Zimbabwe's constitution making process is already behind schedule by more than six months because of unending squabbles in the unity government.

If the outreach programme to gather people's views is successfully concluded in 65 days, the draft would be put to a referendum by October.

It would then be sent to parliament for ratification, which might lead to fresh elections.

Zimbabwe currently uses a constitution that was crafted by its former coloniser, Britain during talks that led to its independence in 1980 and it has been amended 19 times.

By KITSEPILE NYATHI, NATION CorrespondentPosted Thursday, January 14 2010 at 17:51

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