Section 243: Functions of Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission

(1) The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has the following functions—

    (a) to promote awareness of and respect for human rights and freedoms at all levels of

society;

    (b) to promote the protection, development and attainment of human rights and freedoms;

    (c) to monitor, assess and ensure observance of human rights and freedoms;

    (d) to receive and consider complaints from the public and to take such action in regard to

the complaints as it considers appropriate;

    (e) to protect the public against abuse of power and maladministration by State and public

institutions and by officers of those institutions;

    (f) to investigate the conduct of any authority or person, where it is alleged that any of the

human rights and freedoms set out in the Declaration of Rights has been violated by

that authority or person;

    (g) to secure appropriate redress, including recommending the prosecution of offenders,

where human rights or freedoms have been violated;

    (h) to direct the Commissioner-General of Police to investigate cases of suspected

criminal violations of human rights or freedoms and to report to the Commission on

the results of any such investigation;

          (i) to recommend to Parliament effective measures to promote human rights and

freedoms;

    (j) to conduct research into issues relating to human rights and freedoms and social

justice; and

    (k) to visit and inspect—

          (i) prisons, places of detention, refugee camps and related facilities; and

          (ii) places where mentally disordered or intellectually handicapped persons are

detained;

in order to ascertain the conditions under which persons are kept there, and to make

recommendations regarding those conditions to the Minister responsible for

administering the law relating to those places.

(2) The Commissioner-General of Police must comply with any directive given to him or her by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission under subsection (1)(h).