Community Human Rights Monitoring

Retreat Farm residents houses demolished as lockdown measures are tightened

On the 20th of July 2020, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) human rights monitoring team visited the Retreat farm, where the Harare City Council has left hundreds of people homeless. ZimRights learnt that on the 14th of July 2020, the Harare Municipal Police distributed eviction notices to each and every household and the notice ordered the residents to demolish their structures and vacate the area within 48hrs. This follows an increase in the number of home seekers who were illegally being settled in areas reserved for railway lines and other amenities at Retreat Farm just outside Waterfalls in Harare.

Section 74 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states that “no person may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances”. The State’s obligation to refrain from, and protect against, forced evictions from home(s) and land also arises from several international legal instruments that protect citizens to adequate housing and other related human rights violations.