14 DECEMBER 2024
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has once again decided to commemorate International Human Rights Day and the World Aids Day. The commemoration over the years has usually been done to bring to the fore these days and their importance not only to the general populace but to the Zimbabwean worker in particular.
On 10 December 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has become a universal standard for defending and promoting human rights. Every year on 10 December, Human Rights Day marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration. On Human Rights Day, it is celebrated around the globe that “All human beings are born with equal and inalienable rights and fundamental freedoms”.
The main purpose of commemorating this day is to create awareness on Human Rights among the working people. The struggle for the observance of Human Rights by governments all over the world is a key challenge to trade unions whose members are victims of human rights violations.
Over the years the ZCTU has been focused on the Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 23) and in conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labour Organisation which all ILO member governments are obliged to respect. Also over the years, the Trade Union movement in Zimbabwe focused on the suffering of workers at the hands of a government which does not take heed of the obligations of these international instruments.
The ZCTU in particular has had its membership humiliated, abused, intimidated, harassed ,arbitrarily arrested and detained through the use of unfair and unjust legislation. While these rights are important as ever, we should also focus on other rights
that have been neglected for too long. These are socio economic rights. Socio-economic rights are rights relating to the basic social and economic conditions required to ensure a life of dignity and freedom. These rights seek to ensure that everyone has access to resources, opportunities and services essential for an adequate standard of living. These rights also provide protection
for the dignity, freedom and wellbeing of individuals by guaranteeing state supported entitlement. They range from the right to food and food security, education, public health, housing, a living wage, public utilities, decent working conditions to amenities. They are interdependent, indivisible and interrelated.
What it means is that violating one may impair the enjoyment of other socio-economic rights. Gross violation of these rights has been among the root causes of conflicts in many societies, including Zimbabwe. I respectfully submit that respect for these rights is the foundation of freedom, justice peace and contributes to sustainable development.
As we commemorate the World AIDS Day under the, the world theme of this year is "Take the rights path: My health, my right!. The message is that the world can end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 if everyone's rights are protected.
You can see that the issue of health has also been placed at the center of this year’s commemorations. However, we can only eliminate AIDS by 2030 if we have the right institutions. Therefore the right to health must be understood as a right to the enjoyment of a variety of facilities, goods, services and conditions necessary for the realisation of the highest attainable standard of health.
It is also about timely and appropriate medical care. In the years following independence in 1980, Zimbabwe made impressive
progress in health care and the country experienced years of dramatic improvement. The government set up policy objectives such as ‘Equity in Health’ and ‘Health for all by 2000.’’ Life expectancy rose from 55 years in 1980 to 60 years in 1989, immunization programmes were extended to cover over 80% of the population and infant mortality rates had fallen to 46 per 1000 live births. However, the introduction of ESAP in 1991 by the government placed the achievements of the country’s post-independence health policies under threat and reversed most of the gains that had been realised. Since ESAP, significant
reductions in the amount of resources available for investment in the health sector have been recorded. Most hospitals are now run on a cost-recovery basis with a business focus. Under such market-driven systems, the patient is now viewed as a client and services have been ‘commoditised.’
The removal of subsidies for health care has resulted in the ‘commodification’ of health delivery, when in fact it is everybody’s socio-economic right. Most hospitals, including the government ones, dictate that before a patient receives any medical attention, a deposit must be made. This means that if a patient arrives at a hospital, bleeding profusely and on the verge of death, without the deposit, he or she will be denied the right to health care and medical attention.
Due to the budgetary constraints, the health care delivery system in Zimbabwe is in trouble. Clinics and hospitals have insufficient drugs and other medicines. This has been exacerbated by the fact that there is an acute shortage of health delivery staff including doctors and nurses. This is primarily the result of the migration of Zimbabwean medical staff to developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Zimbabwe has become the training ground of medical staff for these developed countries largely because globalisation allows for the mobility of skilled labour.
Furthermore, diseases that had been tamed such as cholera, malaria and tuberculosis have re-emerged as leading killers.
The exorbitant fees charged at these medical centres are beyond the reach of most Zimbabweans. This, therefore, means that most Zimbabweans cannot access health care, which undermines the right to attain the highest possible level of health that all people should be in a position to exercise.
We need to reset the button and go back to the drawing board if we are to eliminate AIDS and other diseases. Let me end by saying as consumers of these rights, it is important for policy makers to ensure that these rights are at the center of their policy formulation as lack of their observance can lead to mass unrests.
I THANK YOU!
Shinga Mushandi Shinga!!Qina Msebenzi Qina!!
PROUD TO BE ZCTU
