Southern Africa

We work primarily in  Zambia and Zimbabwe where our past experience in these countries provides us key regional and country context knowledge. DIHR’sobjective is to help enable the various actors in Zambia and Zimbabwe to respect, promote and protect national and international human rights standards.  We are involved in a range of projects in the following focus areas:

• Legal systems
• Public participation and civil society
• Business and human rights

One example of our work is DIHR’s  legal services model  at Lusaka Subordinate Court. When designing the model, we brought together the Zambian Legal Aid Board, the Lusaka Subordinate  Court and an NGO to create  a successful pilot project that provides legal advice and assistance to vulnerable people  in criminal cases.

Another example can be found in Zimbabwe, one of three selected countries in which DIHR  works to train and engage relevant stakeholders on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (GPs). We engage with local stakeholders to promote a dialogue on human rights in the mining industry in Zimbabwe.

In Zimbabwe and Zambia we also work with civil society to monitor the extent to which the right of access to water is observed in line with international human rights standards and national legislation.