HARARE - Parliament has partnered human rights lawyers to capacitate legislators in the field of human rights work.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and Parliament comes as government ups its crackdown on pro-democracy groups.

Signed on Monday, the MoU aims at lessening the burden on Parliament on the capacity-building of MPs in order to bridge the skills and knowledge gap.

“We believe allowing civil society organisations to interact with Parliament, and regularly consulting with them, are important ways of boosting MPs’ ability to represent their constituencies, as well as ensure that national planning and budgeting processes reflect the needs of the people.

“We are genuinely committed to fostering a culture of human rights in our nation. We believe a culture of respecting human rights, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms begins in this house and cascades down to the communities,” said ZLHR board chairperson Andrew Makoni after the signing ceremony.

Makoni said the cooperation between Parliament and the ZLHR has resulted in the compilation of a human rights manual which will be used during the induction of new legislators.

ZLHR hopes the MoU will help in building confidence and ensuring that the human rights campaigning group is not treated by government with disdain.

“This MoU ushers in a new era in which rights-based institutions such as ZLHR will not be looked at with suspicion but recognised as genuine partners in national development.

The signing ceremony was attended by  speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo, deputy Senate president Naison Ndlovu, clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma and ZLHR executive director Irene Petras.

For over three years now, ZLHR has worked with Parliament’s portfolio committees on Defence and Home Affairs, Peace and Security, and the Thematic Committee on Human Rights.