The rights of persons deprived of their liberty are both explicitly and implicitly provided for in various
international and regional instruments.1 Of the various regional and international treaties, Zimbabwe has signed, ratified or acceded to the ICCPR, CEDAW, ICESCR, CRC, CRPD, ACHPR, AWP and the ACRWC. The signing of a human rights instrument does not mean the State consents to be bound by the treaty, but it is an expression of the State’s willingness to complete the treaty-making process and an obligation to ‘refrain, in good faith, from acts that would defeat the object and the purpose of the treaty’.2 Ratification or accession to a human rights instrument is the international act which indicates a State’s consent to be bound by a treaty.3 Therefore it means that the provisions of the instruments which Zimbabwe has ratified or acceded to are legally binding on it, and the State has an obligation to domesticate the provisions into national law.
Prison Report 2018
