UPR Sexual Rights Database

"National Report:
Para 58) The Public Health Act [Chapter 15:09] provides for the protection of public health, including prevention and suppression of infectious and sexually transmitted diseases …

Para 62) The availability of vital medicines at institutions by the end of 2013 was 66.6%. With development partner support, which is targeted at the communities, 87.2% of primary health care facilities have at least 80% of selected essential medicines. Government has removed customs duty on all imported anti-malarial medicines and commodities and permitted local pharmaceutical companies to produce anti-retroviral drugs. Government has a bilateral agreement for doctors and other health professionals with countries such as Cuba to alleviate shortage of doctors in the country.

Para 63) Government is scaling up Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) services to reduce morbidity and mortality due to HIV and AIDS through: making drugs available and accessible; offering patients ARVs free of charge; training primary counsellors in rapid HIV testing; establishing sites offering ART services; and mobilising and empowering communities to support improved access to care and support.

Para 126) Despite facing economic challenges, Government remains committed to making funding mechanisms in the social services sector such as BEAM and AMTO viable. It is engaging development partners to continue supporting these mechanisms as well as others such as the Health Development Fund and the Child Protection Fund while it pursues ways of fully funding them from its own resources. For example, Government established the National AIDS Trust Fund, which is funded through the AIDS Levy, to cater for those living with HIV and AIDS (about 1.4 million people are living with HIV and AIDS, of which about 800,000 are receiving treatment). Government plans to introduce a national health insurance scheme to ensure that all persons, especially the vulnerable, can have access to proper health care.

Midterm report
The new Constitution makes specific provision for the right to health care. The right includes the right of every person living with a chronic illness to have access to basic healthcare services for the illness and the requirement that no person may be refused emergency medical treatment in any health-care institution.

More health institutions have been created to ensure that the majority of the population is within a 10 kilometre radius of a health centre. This is the country’s set standard within the Primary Health Care Approach which was adopted when Zimbabwe signed the 2008 Ouagadougou Declaration on Primary Healthcare and Health Systems in Africa. Following this, priority has been placed on revitalising the health care delivery system to ensure an effective and efficient referral system and emergency services. Most primary care facilities are functional as they continue to benefit from both Government and donor resources.

The availability of vital medicines at institutions by the end of 2013 was 66.6%. With development partner support, which is targeted at the communities, 87.2% of primary health care facilities have at least 80% of selected essential medicines.

Government is scaling up Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) services to reduce morbidity and mortality due to HIV and AIDS through :
• making drugs available and accessible;
• offering patients ARVs free of charge;
• training primary counsellors in rapid HIV testing;
• establishment of sites offering ART services; and
• mobilising and empowering communities to support improved access to care and support.

UN Compilation:
Para 79) The country team stated that while the States signatories to the Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases had called upon countries to allocate at least 15 per cent of their gross domestic product to the health sector, Zimbabwe only allocated 9.73 per cent in 2016

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 69) JS8 stated that during the 2011 review, Zimbabwe supported recommendations related to the continuation of efforts to reduce HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis as well as mortality rate caused by HIV, and development of a financing mechanism to help the underprivileged. Despite support for those recommendations, children continue to experience difficulties in accessing health services.

Para 70) JS7 stated that at the 2011 review, Zimbabwe undertook to continue efforts to reduce HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis with the assistance of development partners. In 2012, the HIV Combination Prevention Strategy relating to prevention interventions was adopted. Anti-Retroviral Therapy services was increased with the drugs being available and accessible free of charge"

National Report:
Para 82) The GoZ has in the past reported on the different measures that it has put in place to facilitate the registration of all births, including legislative measures.
Para 83) The report on the ZHRC National Inquiry on Access to Documentation, including findings and recommendations was launched in 2020 and some of the recommendations are being implemented.
Para 84) The Civil Registry in collaboration with ZIMSTAT began producing Vital Statistical reports during the year 2021. These have statistics which are useful in determining the completeness of the birth registrations across the country as registered births will be expressed as a proportion of projected number of births which would have occurred during a reporting year.
Para 85) The Registrar General and Matabeleland Collective Trust concluded a memorandum of understanding on cooperation with the intention of mobilising citizens in three provinces to take up their constitutional citizenship rights and to provide them with ease of access to national documentation for the full participation and enjoyment of their rights as Zimbabweans.

National Report Annex:
For general information on measures to improve on birth registration, refer to the 2nd Cycle report. Government is in the process of simplifying administrative procedures by aligning the Births and Deaths Registration Act to the Constitution and reviewing procedure manuals. As a measure to ensure that all births are registered, the Civil Registry collaborates with the Social Development department in registering abandoned and orphaned children. This arrangement has always benefited those children who do not meet basic requirements for birth registration.Government decentralised civil registration services through the establishment of 206 sub offices that are located at all major hospitals, some district hospitals and clinics; and other strategic places. Central, Provincial and District hospitals can now issue birth certificates immediately after children are born in the health facility and areas around the health facility.
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The law of Zimbabwe requires every birth to be registered (s81(1) of the Constitution).However, citizenship is not conferred by such registration to persons who do not qualify for citizenship in terms of the Constitution. Note that in terms of the Constitution (s36(3)), a child found in Zimbabwe who is, or appears to be, less than fifteen years of age, and whose nationality and parents are not known, is presumed to be a Zimbabwean citizen by birth.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 93) Referring to relevant supported recommendations from the previous review, SOSCVZ stated that the situation on the ground remained unchanged, with access to birth registration and the acquisition of birth certificates remaining a challenge for children and parents.
Para 94) ZiCLAN stated that mobile birth registration undertaken for children in residential care resulted in children being issued with abridged birth certificates which were not recognized by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Culture for applications for national identity cards and passports.
Para 95) JS12 stated that birth registration was particularly difficult for people in remote areas because the registry offices were centralized.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 19) JS7 noted the existence of laws that discriminated against persons based on their real or imputed sexual orientation, including Section 78 of the Constitution, which restricts marriage rights to heterosexual relationships, Section 73 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, which criminalises consensual same-sex sexual relations regardless of the age of the persons, and Section 14(1)(f) of the Immigration Act, which classifies “homosexuals” as prohibited persons. In addition, other laws which although were prima facie neutral, have been weaponised by law enforcement officials, including Section 41 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, on disorderly conduct and Section 46 of this Act on criminal nuisance. JS7 stated that the criminalization of consensual same-sex relations lay at the heart of the human rights violations perpetrated against LBGTI persons.