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Tendai Rupapa, Harare Bureau

ZIMBABWE has comprehensive policies and laws guiding access to food and nutrition, a United Nations expert has said.

Ms Hilal Elver, the UN expert on the right to food, was in the country to assess the prevailing situation, challenges and practices concerning all aspects of the right to food.

She was on an 11-day fact finding mission at the invitation of Government.

Ms Elver said her invitation by the Government was indicative of its willingness to open its doors to international human rights mechanisms and to improve its own human rights record.

Commenting on legal and institutional structures and policies relevant to the right to food, Ms Elver said in her preliminary report that Zimbabwe must be commended for its sound policies.

“I would like to express my deep appreciation to the Government of Zimbabwe for extending an invitation to visit the country. This invitation is itself an expression of the Government’s willingness to open its doors to international human rights mechanisms and, with it, to improve its own human rights record,” she said.

“Zimbabwe must be commended for its constitutional protection of the right to food and a sophisticated set of human-rights based national laws and policies on food and nutrition. Article 77 of the Constitution of the Republic of Zimbabwe explicitly guarantees the right to adequate food. Article 81/1, Article 11, Article 15, Article 19/2, and Article 21/2 further provide for the right to food in special circumstances. 

“Furthermore, Zimbabwe has adopted a number of excellent policies to implement the right to food, amongst which are the National Nutrition Strategy, the Transitional Stabilisation Programme, the Zimbabwe Agriculture Investment Plan, the Comprehensive Agricultural Policy Framework, the National Policy on Drought Management and the Food Deficit Mitigation Programme. My interlocutors in the Government all expressed a strong commitment to a zero hunger policy,” said Ms Elver.

She applauded Government for the institutionalisation of the promotion of human rights through the establishment of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC).

However, she said there was need to ensure that the Commission was adequately funded to enable it to discharge its constitutional obligations without hindrance.

The visit by Ms Elver follows that of Mr Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, the Special UN Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, in September.

Mr Voule’s visit was the first to the country by an independent expert appointed by the Human Rights Council.

Government has adopted the engagement and re-engagement policy with various countries and international bodies around the world to re-establish good relations.