The European Union said reluctance by President Robert Mugabe to realign laws with the new constitution was promoting gross human rights violations like the abduction and disappearance of human rights activist Itai Dzamara early this week.
For this reason the Western bloc said it was pouring  $1.28 million to  support  the country’s judiciary system so that it becomes ‘consolidated’ and fully equipped   to carry out its constitutional role of   ‘promoting democracy and rule of law’.
“What we need to do and what we shall do, very shortly, in partnership again with the civil society, the Parliament and the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentarian Affairs, is to provide support to the Judicial Service Commission to contribute to an improved administration of justice,” EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Philippe Van Damme, told delegates witnessing the launch the support to constitutional alignment process in Harare Thursday.
The funding which will go for  two years will be  be channelled through the Centre for Applied Legal Research and directed to provide technical support to the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for technical support.
EU said they were also going to fund the establishment  o f independent commissions  prescribed by  the  new constitution and  equip them.
“What we will do in the next steps, is make sure that the Constitutional Commissions are established and receive the human and financial means to fulfil their constitutional mandate in an independent way, and design a sector-wide approach to support the judiciary system in its various dimensions, in order to consolidate democracy, the respect for the human rights, the rule of law,” Ambassador Van Damme pledged.
EU and other western donors supported the country’s constitution making process during the tenure of the inclusive government which led to the adoption of the new Charter nearly one and a half years ago.