Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (CCJPZ)

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (CCJPZ) was formed by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference in 1972 to address matters of human rights, justice and peace. After independence in 1980, diocesan structures of CCJP were established, thus bringing the Commission closer to the people. Following the formation of Masvingo Diocese from Gweru Diocese in 2009, the newly formed diocese established its CCJP office in 2009 although programs continued being coordinated from the National office in Harare. Through research and documentation, CCJP has brought and continue to bring out human rights violations that undermine the dignity of the human person. CCJP has extensive experience in working with local communities and its symbiotic connection with the Catholic Church makes it a trusted actor in justice, peace building and Human rights education. The organization has over the years proved its ability and capacity to establish trust and rapport with the communities quickly and easily.

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP-Masvingo Diocese) covers eight districts, seven in Masvingo Province and one in Matabeleland South (Beitbridge District). The Diocese is divided into nine Deaneries namely, Gutu, Masvingo South, Masvingo, Bikita, Zaka, Southern Deanery, Mwenezi, Chivi and Lowveld. The Diocese has 27 (twenty seven) missions and 22 (twenty two) parishes and several outstations where active CCJP peace committees/animators, accountability committees and watchdog committees continue to engage relevant stakeholders in their quest to establish just and peaceful communities. In terms of project design, implementation and monitoring since the establishment of the Diocesan office in 2009, CCJP-Masvingo has managed several democracy, social accountability, human rights, reconciliation, healing, civic participation, peacebuilding and governance projects with the support of both International Catholic and non-Catholic funding partners.

CCJP Masvingo envisions a peaceful, just and open society that promotes human dignity and life and strives for the full realization of the human person as a construct of God. CCJP work is premised on the Catholic Social Teachings, promotion of the truth, justice, love, accountability, transparency and freedom among other important ethics. Currently, the commission in Masvingo is implementing five projects that seek to foster social cohesion, civic participation, accountability, transparency and promotion of human rights.

The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP-Masvingo Diocese) is implementing a project titled: Strengthening Church-Driven Democratic Accountability (SCDDA). The social accountability project seeks to enhance women and youth effective engagement in local governance processes through informing them on their constitutional rights & obligations; different duty bearers’ and their mandates, local governance processes and community monitoring. The project seeks to empower citizens to understand their constitutional rights, roles and responsibilities in order for them to hold duty bearers responsible as well as participating in accountable local governance processes. It is expected that the ability of civics to have knowledge on constitutional rights, roles and responsibilities will enhance delivery of social services based on citizen concerns and implementation of the Constitution. CCJP Masvingo is utilizing its existing local church based community structures to build coordinated- citizen based grassroots structures made up of women and youths that collectively influence democratic and accountable governance at the local government level. Given the information gap on constitutional awareness, education and social accountability, the project is promoting increased access to alternative sources of information in marginalized target communities of Masvingo Diocese.

The promotion and protection of human rights project envisions empowered citizens and communities demanding their Rights and holding duty bearers to account. The project seeks to address the problems associated with the lack of respect and observance of human rights and the failure by the poor and vulnerable groups to access to justice. Particular issues being addressed by the project include awareness-raising and civic education given to men, women, youth and traditional leaders which at times lack a parallel strand of strategic advocacy to bring about policy and legal changes at both local and national levels. CCJP Human Rights work with traditional leaders has since moved to action-oriented work through social accountability dialogues which generate ideas and action points often implemented by the local stakeholders. One of the lessons drawn from community engagements included the need to train watchdog committee members and human rights monitors in the communities in community paralegal work to enhance these local structures. This was deemed as a long term sustainable strategy to advance legal rights in the absence of lawyers at a community level and plans are already in place to action that. The focus has always been on basic civil and political rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

The social cohesion and civic participation project is aimed at contributing to national peace, reconciliation, devolution processes, community cohesion against politically motivated violence in conflict-affected contexts. Specifically CCJP and its partners hopes to create a context where once polarised communities have greater cohesion and share a commitment to preserving peace within their localities stakeholders and communities are committed to preserving peace in their locality. The Commission also seeks to strengthen the capacities of local peace structures to respond to emerging conflicts and strengthen the Church preparedness to address violent tensions and build peace.

CCJP is striving to enhance the internal capacities of church leaders to model and adhere to shared standards of good governance, accountability, transparency and social cohesion within church structures. Faced with the current challenges, the organization is determined to boost the capacity of the church to act as non-partisan, trusted convenors of local dialogues and disseminators of information related to policy, legislative, decision-making and development processes. In addition, strengthen the church so that it can take leadership in facilitating citizen participation in the implementation of the Government of Zimbabwe’s devolution and decentralisation framework that will result in improved social service delivery, community resilience, risk mitigation, preparedness and response