Implementing the right to development in Zimbabwe : challenges and opportunities

Abstract

This mini-dissertation explores the extent to which Zimbabwe has fulfilled its obligations pertaining to the right to development. The country's National Development Strategy (NDS1) and other development related policies have fallen short of meeting the essential requirements of the right to development. These are based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and other regional and domestic legal instruments which emphasise participation, non-discrimination, self-determination, and people-centred development—all of which are human rights-based approaches to development. Despite being a well-established collective right in regional and international human rights law, Zimbabwe's implementation of the right has not benefitted the masses but has only served the wealthy elite. While the right is protected by the law, it has resided in obscurity compared to other human rights that assume a more officious status due to it being an unremunerated right. It is also argued that the government of Zimbabwe experiences a conflict of priorities that further complicates the implementation of the right for the benefit of ordinary citizens. To correct this anomaly, the state must seek to give meaning and greater recognition to the right in its legal framework and in the coming national development strategy (NDS2).