‘Diamond Rush’ and the Relocation of the Chiadzwa Community in Zimbabwe: A Human Rights Perspective

The on-going debate and stalemate over the violation of human rights of the Chiadzwa community during their relocation to Arda Transau, so as to pave way for diamond mining activities has taken centre stage in many forums both in Zimbabwe, regionally and beyond. The so called ‘diamond rush’ that started in 2006 in Chiadzwa communal area in Zimbabwe has pitted the government and the mining companies on the other hand with the community and human rights NGOs on the extreme end. It is in this vein, that this paper was aimed at critically investigating the role and responses of human rights Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the relocation of the Chiadzwa community. The study pays particular attention to the legal and non-legal mechanisms that were employed by the human rights NGOs in rights claiming and realisation on behalf of the community. The central argument of the paper builds around the extent to which human rights NGOs were involved in addressing the consequences of forced relocation in Chiadzwa. In grappling with the analysis of the NGO interventions, the paper uses both an inductive and deductive human rights approach. In the final analysis the paper submits that there are numerous challenges in seeking remedies under the local, regional and international human rights law system for the affected Chiadzwa population. The paper concludes by observing that although human rights organisations were positively engaged in the Chiadzwa relocation several challenges and limitations affected their interventions.