Press Release from Freedom House: "Zimbabwe Unfit to Serve as Leader of UN Body."

Press Release

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Amanda Abrams

Zimbabwe Unfit to Serve as Leader of UN Body

Washington, D.C.,May 10, 2007 Zimbabwe is completely unfit to serve as chair of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, and its selection should be blocked by other members of the commission, Freedom House said today. Zimbabwe has been submitted by African countries as the next head of the commission, whose leadership rotates by region. Though other countries have reacted with indignation, it is expected that the African group will push their recommendation through tomorrow, when the decision will be made. The body is charged with monitoring global policies on economic development and the environment. “For Zimbabwe to lead any UN body is preposterous—the Mugabe government clearly has nothing but scorn for the UN’s founding principles of human rights, security and international law,” said Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House. “But for it to preside over an institution examining ways toward sustainable development is particularly ludicrous. Any Zimbabweans with useful ideas on the topic are obviously not welcome in decision-making circles in Harare, which is presiding over one of the most precipitous and calamitous cases of de-development the world has ever seen.” Though Zimbabwe was once the “breadbasket of southern Africa,” the country is now experiencing its worst economic crisis since independence, widely attributed to the policies of President Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe’s inflation rate, currently the world’s highest at over 2200 percent, is expected to exceed 4000 percent by the end of the year, and 80 percent of the population is unemployed. On Wednesday, the government warned households that it may institute 20-hour daily power cuts. The government is also responsible for major human rights abuses against opposition activists, civil society advocates and journalists. Zimbabwe is one of the world’s most repressive states, and ranks as Not Free in the 2007 edition of Freedom in the World. The country received a rating of 7 (on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 as the lowest) for political rights and a 6 for civil liberties. Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the expansion of freedom in the world, has monitored political rights and civil liberties in Zimbabwe since 1980. For more information about Zimbabwe, visit: Freedom in the World 2007: Zimbabwe Freedom of the Press 2007: Zimbabwe