INERELA+ Zimbabwe in partnership with its implementing partners namely Development Agenda for Girls and Women in Africa Network (DAWA), Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) and My Age an active and effective youth empowerment organization celebrates the recent judgement passed by the Zimbabwean Constitutional Court in favor of sex workers. Men Engage Zimbabwe and its affiliates also endorsed this positive move by the court.
Zimbabwean sex workers and other key populations faced unacceptably high levels of violence, stigma discrimination and many other gross violations of their human rights and dignity for a very long time. This pathetic environment made the sex workers more prone to violence, marginalization and subjugation.
The criminalization of sex work in Zimbabwe presents legal barriers to sex workers and exposes them to the risk of arrest, police abuse, bribery, brutality and blackmail. However, pressure has been mounting on the judiciary and legislature to review the ever-increasing oppression and apparent violation of sex workers’ rights within the country and beyond its borders. Due to the advocacy on the rights of sex workers by civil society organizations among them INERELA+ Zimbabwe, Development Agenda for Girls and Women in Africa Network (DAWA), and Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) a historic court order was issued on the 24th of April 2024 resulting in 21 sex workers who had been charged under section 81 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform act) (Chapter 9:23) released from prison. The court order was a follow-up on the precedence ruling in which the Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe delivered what is now being termed a landmark ruling on the 27th of May 2015. The landmark ruling signified that the police were no longer allowed to arrest sex workers. This indeed was met with great jubilation by all stakeholders and civil society actors. This ruling was a great victory for the sex workers themselves and a milestone for INERELA+ Zimbabwe together with their partners.