Occasional Paper

Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Reform Process: Challenges and Prospects

“This paper examines Zimbabwe’s constitutional-reform process. The first section traces the background to constitutional reform in Zimbabwe. A brief discussion of the Constitutional Commission’s draft of 1999/2000 is followed by a description of the development of a draft by the Constitutional Assembly (NCA) in 2001. Then the process leading to the so-called Kariba Draft of 2007 is outlined. The COPAC-led constitutional-reform process, including some of the challenges it has faced, is then examined. This is followed by an overview of how the draft COPAC constitution deals with issues of justice and reconciliation. The final section focuses on prospects for a constitutional referendum in 2012 and for the likelihood of elections occurring thereafter.”