Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) chairperson Loice Matanda-Moyo says anti-corruption institutions should guard against infringing on people’s rights in the process of fighting graft.
Matanda-Moyo said this will addressing various stakeholders during a roundtable meeting on corruption and human rights, in Harare yesterday.
“Including human rights approaches in the fight against corruption ensures that during Zacc’s work, our investigators and legal officers do not infringe on the rights of an individual to the presumption of innocence, the right to property and the right to privacy,” Matanda-Moyo said.
The meeting was organised by ZACC in collaboration with Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Transparency International Zimbabwe.
Matanda-Moyo highlighted the need to protect people who report on corruption practices.
“Human rights approaches most importantly highlight the need to secure adequate protection for persons who report corrupt practices. As ZACC, we take pride in collaborative approaches to mitigating corruption through creation of strategic partnerships.
“It is under this partnership between ZACC and Raoul Wallenberg Institute on Human Rights that we are strengthening the capacities of institutions to promote, respect, protect and fulfil human rights within their respective mandates and enhance the means and space for main stakeholders to constructively engage with each other on human rights development.” She said.
She said although graft busters were targeting criminals, they should respect the rights of offenders as enshrined in the Constitution.
“While anti-corruption instruments focus on suppression of corruption through criminalisation and place emphasis on the perpetrators, human rights law takes a victim-centred approach. It also imposes an obligation to prevent corruption, as well as to provide redress to the injured party or parties.
“Including human rights approaches in the fight against corruption ensures that during ZACC’s work, our investigators and legal officers do not infringe on the rights of an individual to the presumption of innocence, the right to property and the right to privacy.” She added.
ZACC is fighting for the crafting of a whistleblower protection law to shield persons that report graft.
Recently, ZACC bemoaned delays in finalisation of court cases as suspects were continually submitting applications at the courts in the guise of exercising their constitutional rights to deliberately avoid trial.