Excellency,

We have the honour to address you in our capacities as Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 50/17, 44/5, 52/9 and 52/4. In this connection, we would like to offer the following comments on the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Amendment Act (no. 10 of 2023), which was enacted into law by the Parliament and the President of Zimbabwe on 14 July 2023.

We note that several provisions in this Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [chapter 9:23] (the Act) may contravene Zimbabwe’s international human rights obligations, including the right to life, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to privacy, the right to participate in public affairs and the right not to be deprived of citizenship.

We respectfully address several human rights challenges in relation to the definitions of “sovereignty” and “national interest” contained in the Act which, in our view, are overly broad and risk negative and disproportionate impacts on particular groups, on due process, on the right to liberty and security of persons, as well as on the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression, and freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.