Lawyers petition High Court over PVO Act

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has written to the High Court of Zimbabwe seeking an order to declare provisions of the Private Voluntary Organization Amendment Act unconstitutional.

ZLHR posted the following statement on its X handle:

“We have petitioned the High Court seeking an order to declare some repressive provisions of PVO Amendment Act as unconstitutional & to set them aside as they imprudently criminalise legitimate critical development & human rights work & over-regulate PVOs.

ZLHR is a universitas at law, being a body comprising of human rights lawyers & defenders who voluntarily came together in 1995 with a broad mandate of protecting the Constitution, advancing the cause of constitutionalism & the rule of law & defending victims of human rights abuses & unconstitutional behaviour.

In an application filed at Harare High Court on 16 May 2025, ZLHR argues that the PVO Amendment Act, which was enacted & published in the Government Gazette on 11 April 2025, constitutes a fundamental encroachment of rights of members of the organisation, which is an independent universitas established by law.

ZLHR, opine that the impugned amendments contained in the PVO Amendment Act constitute unconstitutional over-regulation, over legislation and criminalisation of innocent important charitable, developmental & human rights work.

The provisions of the PVO Amendment Act, ZLHR argues, overreach by violating the freedom of assembly & association guaranteed under section 58(1) of the Constitution, the freedom of expression under section 61 of the Constitution, the right to administrative justice guaranteed under section 68(1) and (2) of the Constitution, the right to a fair hearing under section 69(1), (2) and (3) of the Constitution and section 71 of the Constitution, which provides for property rights.

ZLHR further argues that the impugned provisions of the PVO Amendment Act, are badly drafted & contain arbitrary powers and over-regulation of PVOs.

The PVO Amendment Act, ZLHR says, has the effect of concentrating arbitrary powers in the Minister and the Registrar’s office and contains excessive executive interference in the internal affairs of PVOs.

The impugned provisions of the PVO Amendment Act have the net effect of effectively allowing the Executive to run PVOs & to deregister those that authorities dislike on very nebulous grounds.

The law-based human rights organisation wants the High Court to grant it an order of constitutional invalidity, declaring section 4, section 5 as read with section 9(5), section 6, section 13A, section 14, & section 21, of the Private Voluntary Organisations Act (as amended by the PVO Amendment Act) to be ultra vires the Constitution & to be set.

Zwnews