Vision
A society in Southern Africa that respects human rights.

Mission statement
To facilitate the development of a society in Southern Africa that respects human rights, democracy and good governance. This will be ahieved by:

• Mainstreaming human rights, democracy and good governance in public institutions
• Advocacy training
• Fostering a culture that promotes and protects human rights through community based initiatives

Objectives
In order to fulfil the above mission, SAHRIT is guided by the following objectives to:

• Advocate for ratification of or accession to relevant human rights instruments

• Carry out advocacy and information dissemination on human rights, democracy and good governance

• Incorporate human rights into the education systems

• Train law enforcement and public officials in human rights

• Promote community based care of children, especially those in difficult circumstances

• Develop and maintain a human rights resource centre
• Network at national, regional and international levels with other organizations on human rights, democracy and good governance issues

Values
The SAHRIT's values are:

• Respect for human dignity and worth

• Non-discrimination

• Gender equality

• Protection of fundamental rights and freedoms

• The best interests of the child

• Good governance

• Environmental sustainability

Organisational Structure
A Board of Trustees drawn from Southern African countries governs SAHRIT. The board is responsible for policy formulation and overall programme implementation. The Executive Director, who is an ex officio member of the Board, is responsible for the day to day running of SAHRIT and is accountable to the Board. He is also in charge of all programme planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

A Programmes Coordinator, three programme managers, two Project Officers, an Administrative Officer, a Bookkeeper, two Administrative secretaries, a Librarian/Documentalist, a Driver, two Office Orderly make up the staff complement. The staff complement grew from 6 in 1998 to 15 in 2000.

Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees is responsible for policy making and SAHRIT's development plans. The Board approves all appointments to SAHRIT. The current Board members are:

• Prof. Walter Joseph Kamba, BA, LLB, LLM. He is a registered legal practitioner who holds several honorary doctorates, which include Doctor of Laws (UZ), Doctor of Laws (SA) and Doctor of Laws (Scotland). He is a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe and a Professor of Law and founding Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Namibia. He is the Chairperson of the Herbert Chitepo Chair of Human Rights and Democracy in the Faculty of Law at the University of Zimbabwe. He is the Chairperson of SAHRIT.

• Philliat Matsheza, LLB. Hons, (UZ), MIL (Lund). He has held various posts in the Zimbabwe Public Service such as Deputy Director of Information and Under Secretary for Policy and Legislation in the Ministry of Home Affairs. He also served as a diplomat in Addis Ababa, Bonn and Brussels. He served as the Chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) from 1999 to 2001 and has been a national delegate to numerous regional and international conferences. His publications include briefing documents and seminar papers on ethics, human rights and anti-corruption. Additionally, he has authored the following publications: Anti-Corruption Mechanisms and Strategies in Southern African; Human Rights, Democracy and Good Governance: A Handbook for Parliamentarians; Human Rights Enforcement and Implementation Mechanisms; and Measuring Corruption in Southern Africa. He is the Executive Director of SAHRIT.

• Mildred Mushunje, BSW (UZ), MED-Gender (UK), Counselling (Zim). Former Co-ordinator of Women and Law Project and Co-ordinator of Coalition of Women and Land Lobby Group. She is currently Director of Centre for Counselling and Consultancy Services.

• Leonard Zulu, LLB. Hons (UZ), MIL (Lund) . Former public prosecutor and legal practitioner with Honey and Blackenberg, a Harare legal firm. A protection officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kosovo.

• Dumisani Mashingaidze, BL. Hons LLB, Dip in WL (UZ). She is a registered legal practitioner who has held various senior posts in the legal and human rights field. She is a former partner with the law firm Hove, Mutasa and Associates, Director of the Harare Legal Projects Centre, Programme Coordinator of the UNDP Women in Politics and Decision Making Project, and National Coordinator of the Women in Law in Southern Africa. She is currently the Secretary of the Law Society of Zimbabwe.

• Prof. Gudmundur Alfredsson , Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Sweden), former senior Human Rights Advisor to the Human Rights Commission in Geneva and author of a number of human rights articles. He is the Technical Advisor to SAHRIT.

• Dr. Alfred W. Chanda , LLB, LLM (UNZA), LLM, JSD (Yale). He was a visiting professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (Sweden) and the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria (South Africa), and visiting researcher, Norwegian Institute for Human Rights, Oslo University. He is currently a senior lecturer at the School of Law, University of Zambia. He is also the President of the Foundation for Democratic Process (FODEP), a leading human rights, civic education and election monitoring NGO in Zambia as well as a member of several other organisations. He has written and co-written several articles and books.

• Ollen Mwalubunju , BA-Pol.Sc. (Makerere), MA-Policy Studies (SARIPS). He is a former research assistant with the Pan African Movement (Uganda) and Centre for Basic Research (Uganda), Research Co-ordinator of several projects and co-director of the Presidential and Parliamentary Election Civil and Voter Education Project of the Church/NGO consortium (Malawi). He was also the Chief Coordinator of the Malawi Exiled Human Rights Activists Group. He is currently the Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation, (Malawi) and also the country co-ordinator of the Southern African NGO's Electoral Support Network.

• Sanji M. Monageng , LLB (UB). She has worked for Barclays Bank of Botswana and is a former Magistrate in the Department of Justice. She is currently the Executive Secretary of the Law Society of Botswana and is a member of a number of organisations, such as Women in Law in Southern Africa, the Human Rights Movement (UB) and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Botswana Chapter).

Policy and Programme Development
The policy framework that guides SAHRIT in its operations focuses on mainstreaming human rights within public institutions in the region, with emphasis on those arms of government charged with the responsibility of administering justice, enforcement of legal and human rights instruments and the promotion of the welfare of the individual.

This is in line with the call made at the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, for states to introduce human rights in all their institutions, and the UN Decade for Human Rights Education (1995-2004)

Further, in recognition of the fact that women's rights are human rights, gender issues permeate throughout all SAHRIT's programmes.

Special focus on child rights is made in recognition of the growing menace of child abuse, especially the girl child. A community based approach to promote and protect children's rights was adopted to ensure community responsibility and ownership of programmes aimed at enhancing the protection and promotion of children's rights.

SAHRIT Privacy Policy
Last Updated: Sep 27, 2005
Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa is very concerned about protecting your online privacy. This is our policy about the privacy of information we collect on the Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa site.

We collect two types of information about people who visit our site: anonymous, and personal.

Anonymous data is collected automatically about site visitors, indicating their browser type, operating system, Internet service provider, or the site they clicked from. We use this data to determine the total number of site visits and the average time visitors spend at the site. We do not use cookies or similar tracking technologies to collect information about site visitors. This kind of anonymous data is collected in the aggregate and does not tell us any information about a visitor as an individual. We will not sell or voluntarily transfer this information to third parties.

We may also collect personal information about site visitors who give us such information voluntarily:

• When you make a contribution to SAHRIT online, we collect personal information on the contribution form. Your name, postal address, and email address may be exchanged or rented to other reputable and like-minded organizations, unless you choose to opt-out by checking the box on the contribution form. More information about our opt-out policy is provided below.
• If you join any SAHRIT newsletter, you will automatically receive periodic bulletins about human rights from us via email. We may also send you email solicitations to support SAHRIT . We will not exchange or rent your email address to other organizations.
• We occasionally post user surveys on our site to help us improve our services to visitors. Participation in our user surveys is voluntary. We may use the information you give us in a survey to contact you regarding particular human rights issues, unless you check the "opt-out" box on the survey. We will not exchange or rent your information to other organizations.
• We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13 years old. If you are under 13 years old, please do not provide us with any such information.

SAHRIT does not currently combine data provided by our users - for example, your address when you're buying a book and your email address when subscribing to a newsletter - into one master database.

Opting Out: You may opt-out of receiving solicitations from us, and from having us disclose your personal information to like-minded organizations for the purpose of contacting you. You may do this whenever you provide us with personal information by checking the appropriate box on the online form. You may also send a request by email to or by letter to:

Human Rights Trust of Southern Africa (SAHRIT)
12 Ceres Road,
Avondale Harare,
Zimbabwe

 

Proceedings: It is possible that a government or other entity will try to compel us to disclose data. We will challenge any subpoena or other legal process seeking access to anonymous or personal data of users of our web site and mailing lists.

Revisions to Policy. This privacy policy is valid as of the date at the top of the policy. Please note that, by using the site, you signify your agreement to this privacy policy. If you do not agree to this privacy policy, please do not use sections of our site requesting information from you. We reserve the right to revise this privacy policy from time to time. Your continued use of the site subsequent to changes to this privacy policy will mean that you accept such changes.

Leaving Site. Please note that third parties may collect information about you, through cookies or other technologies, when you link to their websites through our site. We do not monitor or control the information collection or privacy practices of these or any other third parties, and are not responsible for their practices or the content of their websites. You should review the privacy policies of such third parties to understand how they collect and use information.

Security. We use reasonable security methods to protect the data that resides on our servers. But because no security system is impenetrable, we cannot guarantee the security of our servers. It is also possible that information you supply us will be intercepted during transmission.