UN Authority Figures

U.N. Commission for Social Development: Zimbabwe

"Zimbabwe's children and their parents pick up single corn kernels spilled on the roadside by trucks ferrying maize corn." Malnutrition in Zimbabwe's children and the recent cholera outbreak that has claimed thousands of lives are largely blamed on the policies of President Robert Mugabe. (BBC, December 14, 2008)

Mission of the Commission for Social Development: "...the Commission has been the key UN body in charge of the follow-up and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action....Each year since 1995, the Commission has taken up key social development themes as part of its follow-up to the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit. These themes are...Promoting full employment and decent work for all...Improving public sector effectiveness....National and international cooperation for social development...Integration of social and economic policy..." (Commission for Social Development web-site)

Zimbabwe's Term of office: 2011-2015 (elected April 28, 2010)

Zimbabwe's Record on Social Development:
"The government's campaign of forced evictions and the demolition of homes and businesses continued during the year under the land reform policy, which affected more than 5,000 farm workers and their families. Approximately 3,300 families were forcibly displaced, sometimes violently, during government-condoned takeovers of commercial farms...[C]hild labor was common...[T]he incidence of children who worked in the informal sector continued to increase...Children often lacked access to necessary safety equipment and training. Children worked...in illegal gold and diamond mining, as street vendors, and as car-watchers. There were continued reports of large numbers of girls subject to sexual exploitation." (US State Department Country Report of Human Rights Practices in Zimbabwe, 2009)