Zimbabwean Authorities Must Produce Missing Activist

Alert Issued: December 4, 2008

UPDATE: On May 5, 2009, Ms. Mukoko was charged with banditry along with 14 other human rights activists.  She had been remanded in custody since December, when she appeared in court badly bruised.

Zimbabwean human rights defender Jestina Mukoko has been abducted and her whereabouts are unknown.

Eye witnesses report that early in the morning on Wednesday, December 3, approximately 15 unidentified armed men in plainclothes surrounded Mukoko's home. Four of them broke into the house and took Mukoko, driving away in a vehicle without license plates.

Mukoko is the director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), a local human rights organization that monitors and documents human rights violations. In a recent report, ZPP documented continued incidents of murder, rape, and kidnappings, despite a September 15 power-showering agreement that was supposed to encourage peace and stability.

Zimbabwean human rights lawyers were reportedly unable to locate Mukoko in any of the usual detention centers and on Thursday requested a court order for the authorities to produce the activist.

Mukoko is in danger of torture and ill-treatment. Take action now to urge the Zimbabwean authorities to disclose the whereabouts of Jestina Mukoko, guarantee her well-being, and ensure her immediate release, as well as all others unjustly imprisoned.

Background

For more information on conditions in Zimbabwe, see this recent report by Mukoko's organization, the Zimbabwe Peace Project.

Sample Letter:

Dear Commissioner General Chihuri:

I am writing to express my concern about the abduction and detention of Jestina Mukoko, Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP).

I understand that early in the morning on December 3, 2008, a group of 15 armed men who wore plainclothes surrounded Ms. Mukoko's home and abducted her. It is not known where Ms. Mukoko was taken, or where she is currently being held.

As director of ZPP, Ms. Mukoko has been reporting on human rights violations in Zimbabwe, particularly politically-motivated incidents of murder, rape and kidnapping. She is now an apparent victim of the very same practices she has been exposing.

I am aware that in recent weeks there has been a rise in the targeting of activists and human rights defenders in Zimbabwe. Mukoko is not the only activist, or even the only member of her organization, to be subject to enforced disappearance or arbitrary detention.

The government of Zimbabwe has a responsibility to ensure the safety and physical integrity of Ms. Mukoko. As stated in Article 12.2 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, "the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of their legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in this Declaration."

Further, the abduction of Ms. Mukoko is a violation of Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Zimbabwe has ratified and to which it is bound.

Consequently, I urge you to make public the whereabouts of Ms. Mukoko and release her immediately. I also ask that you take actions to end immediately the intimidation, harassment, and attacks against all activists and defenders in Zimbabwe.