Lack of national identity documentation by prison inmates affects their ability to qualify for presidential pardons and amnesties, a report by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) has shown.
The report is the Commission’s first-ever National Inquiry in a quest to address systemic violations of human rights.
It highlighted that in some cases, children were tried under the adult justice system because they would not have supporting documents to verify their age.
“The age estimation service in government hospitals is inefficient. Those without national identity cards were at the risk of not being granted bail. Inmates without identification documents are not eligible for age-related Presidential pardons and amnesties as their ages were unknown,” the report read.
“A large proportion of inmates did not have birth certificates or national identity cards. This affected their chances of furthering their education and opportunities for rehabilitation efforts such as vocational skills.
Undocumented inmates were unable to get the supporting documents and witnesses required to acquire national documents. This was because their relatives did not have money to travel and assist them to get registered or they abandoned them once they were incarcerated.”
The report also highlighted that the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) has a bilateral agreement for the interstate transfer of inmates who are convicted and sentenced in other jurisdictions, namely, Zambia and Mozambique to enable such inmates to serve their sentences in their country of origin.
Inmates in these countries who claimed to be Zimbabweans could not benefit from the bilateral arrangements without documentary proof.
“The ZPCS has a mandate to ferry inmates to the DRG’s office to apply for national documents but fuel shortages hamper these efforts. The DRG’s office carries out mobile registration programmes in some prisons. However, most inmates failed to acquire national documents due to inability to meet the legal requirements.”
