Zimbabwe, the African Union and Human Rights: A New Era Born or Just Stillborn?

The article offers human rights analysis of the crisis in Zimbabwe. Prospects of a settlement of the country’s crisis satisfactorily, from a human rights point of view, are bleak. The assistance of key actors – especially South Africa – in brokering such a settlement is required. However the reasons justifying such urgent attention on the part of external actors are unclear. The principal justification offered in response and set out below is that the outcome of the human rights struggle in Zimbabwe has profound consequences for the human rights struggle in Africa generally. The reaction of African governing class to the human rights crisis tests their commitment to the principles of the African Charter and to human rights more generally.