Shamiso Mtisi

In this paper I discuss broadly the context of environmental, economic, social and cultural rights, analysing particularly the connections and synergies between these rights, and their potential to promote sustainable use of natural resources, and therefore development in Southern Africa. In the next section I trace the conceptual history, content and scope of economic, social, and cultural rights (“ESCRs”) and then in the third part I show how these got intertwined with environmental rights in a complimentary role. Part four discusses the challenges being faced in promoting, protecting and fulfilling EESCRs in Southern Africa, and Africa broadly; and then in the fifth part I offer possible solutions that can see an improvement in the protection of EESCRs. I conclude the paper by highlighting issues that need further study and that can be pursued by public interest environmental organisations. So what exactly do we mean by social, economic, and cultural rights? Is there a shared understanding of the scope and legal content of these rights? Should these rights be the subject of legal protection or rather should we leave them to policy makers and politicians who are mandated with the task of governing and distributing resources as they deem fit? What is it that law and the courts can do to ensure effective fulfilment of these rights?

There is no doubt that the clarity, colour, caratage and sparkle of the Zimbabwean diamonds from Marange can only be restored and
guaranteed through the restoration and respect of human rights, rule of law, transparency and accountability and systemic
improvements in institutional governance across the whole diamond supply chain from prospecting, mining, marketing and export. The
purpose of this analysis is to demonstrate that part of the solution to restore the sparkle and fire in the Zimbabwean diamond is to
craft a good legal framework that can be effectively enforced and implemented in line with the Kimberley Process Certification
Scheme (KPCS) minimum requirements on the trade and export of rough diamonds. At the outset, there is need to be alive to the fact
that resolution of the problems relating to Zimbabwe's diamond industry do not only lie in developing a policy or legal framework, but
also in the political will to implement those reforms. This analysis, therefore, presents some of the various legal options that can be
pursued to reform the sector as the need for mining laws to respond to new economic and social realities cannot be ignored.

This book is a compilation of research papers written by authors from East and Southern African and American based social and
environmental advocacy groups. The papers were prepared and presented during the 2009 Skills Share and Learning Exchange
Conference and Outreach Visit Programme held in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Skills Share and Learning Exchange Programme was designed
to act as a forum for social and environmental justice practitioners to share skills and experiences on strategies to secure and protect the
rights of natural resource dependent communities in East and Southern Africa with the technical and financial support of the Ford
Foundation. Additionally, the programme was established in order to strengthen and broaden the capacities of social and environmental
justice activists to advocate, litigate and research on community rights. The 2009 edition was running under the theme “securing
environmental, economic, social and cultural rights of communities in mining areas”. It was aimed at ensuring that participants understand
and share their ideas about how best community assets and rights in mining areas can be promoted and protected.

The growing of crops for fuel and energy production, the bio-fuels rush has caught on Zimbabwe. Although the pace
is slow and the scale low, the government has been making frantic efforts to entice communal farmers and private
commercial farmers to diversify their agricultural activities by growing jatropha or sugar cane to produce feedstock
for biodiesel production. Considerable efforts and resources have so far been invested in that regard, hence, a
National Biofuels Feedstock Production Programme was launched, a private company was formed to buy jatropha
feedstock from communal farmers, trials and research is ongoing on biodiesel production, a biofuels processing plant
was acquired and a Cabinet White Paper on Principles for Biofuels Development and Use in Zimbabwe was prepared
and presented to Cabinet. This situation is indicative of the strong belief by the Government of Zimbabwe that
biofuels may be the silver bullet to deal with the fuel shortages, energy security and to economically transform the
lives of communal farmers.
The primary purpose of this policy and practice review publication is to assess the participation of community groups
in biofuels production in Zimbabwe.

There are key lessons and observations that can be drawn from an analysis of the legislative environmental representation work. One of the key lessons is that despite the existence of laws, guidelines, principles and policies for legislative representation, environmental representation is still in its infancy stages in Zimbabwe. Ideally, legislators are expected to have discussed, debated, and approved new legislation, however, the facts on the ground show that many legislators do not even understand the law they pass. Legislative environmental representation during the colonial era was biased toward the aggrandizement and exploitation of natural resources for the benefit of Europeans and the few voices of black Africans who were incorporated into the Legislative Assembly carried no weight in the law making process.
Further, legislative representation in Zimbabwe is shaped by a number of key factors including the interests of the constituency, national interests as well as other conditions created by law and practice such as accountability to the constituency, authority to speak and represent the constituency, personal ambitions of the legislator as autonomy. It is when some of these factors are absent that legislative representation might fail to fulfill its intended objective.
The above situation calls for policy and legal changes with regard to legislative representation to enhance the elevation of community interests by elected representatives from a social, economic and environmental sphere. The aim should be to improve and encourage effective legislative representation. It is important to give a set of recommendations that may improve accountability, autonomy, authority and ambition in environmental representation.