Gendered Impact of Zimbabwe’s Transitional Justice: Too Little Too Late

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue III, March 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Gendered Impact of Zimbabwe’s Transitional Justice: Too Little Too Late

Lilian Chaminuka

Zimbabwe Open University, Zimbabwe

Abstract -The gendered impact of transitional justice after Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle is similar to early efforts in other countries to try and address massive and systematic human rights violations that are largely gender blind. The paper takes a historical analysis highlighting how government chose not to specifically address sexual violence, nor did they examine how women had been distinctly impacted by the war of liberation. There was a pervasive silence regarding violence against, harm to, and the degradation of women with female ex combatants becoming recipients of piecemeal policies and fragmented efforts to accommodate them. The process and what has been done for the Zimbabwean woman is either too little or has been done too late as the legacy of this violence endures long after independence was achieved in 1980. This is not to say government has done absolutely nothing as some gains have been made in building a gender balanced society that factors in contribution of women. The study which employed the qualitative approach, revealed that women are not particularly happy as they feel more can be done as the realities they face today under study show a continuum in the violence exercised against them, their subordinate role, their oppression, the threats and harassment they endured in the past and present lack of economic resources to live a dignified life. The paper is based from a broad study that was undertaken by the author in her studies at the Africa University in 2014.

Key words: gender, human rights, women ex-combatants, reintegration, transitional justice

I. INTRODUCTION

The concept of Transitional Justice was defined by an international law advocate Roht-Arriazah (2006) as benefits given to people who suffered abuse during conflict. Roht-Arriazah (2006) notes that the actual transitional justice processes have come to be defined as ‘a set of practices, mechanisms and concerns that arise following a period of conflict, civil strife or repression, and are aimed directly at confronting and dealing with past violations of human rights.

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