Zimbabwe president signs law to curb civic space – JURIST
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed a law that would significantly restrict the rights to freedom of association and expression in the country on Friday, according to Human Rights Watch.
The law, the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Amendment Act 2025, was originally proposed in 2021 but failed to obtain presidential assent in 2023. It establishes a Private Voluntary Organisations Board and an Office of the Registrar of PVOs to be in charge of the registration and supervision of PVOs. In Section 2, the definition of PVOs has been broadened to include trusts, legal persons and “beneficial owners.” It also inserts new sections that forbid PVOs from supporting or opposing any political party or candidate in a presidential, parliamentary or local government election. The amended Section 21 of the Act grants power to the government to suspend the executive committee of PVOs when there are reasonable grounds for believing that “it is necessary or desirable to do so in the public interest.”
Amnesty International said that the law could be used by the government to deny registration of human rights organizations and would exacerbate the crackdown on civil society organizations as well as individuals trying to hold the government accountable. In 2021, when the amendment bill was drafted, UN experts concluded that the bill was incompatible with international human rights obligations, especially the right to freedom of association.
Following the enactment of the bill, European Union Ambassador to Zimbabwe Jobst von Kirchmann said that the PVO Amendment Bill “has further reinforced negative trends in governance.” As a result, the EU has suspended 2025 funding originally planned to support Zimbabwe’s good governance initiatives.
In 2023, the Zimbabwe government used the previous version of the PVO Act to deregister 291 organizations.
