N AT I O N A L I N Q U I R Y R E P O R T ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION For Human Dignity Women: Out of a total of 7544 witness submissions received, 4877 were received from women. Women across all age groups and in all Provinces bear the burden of challenges associated with lack of identity documents.  Some women were divorced because they lacked identity documents.  Some women face gender-based violence from their husbands or grown up children because of failure to register children due to their un-documented status.  Some women are stigmatised, looked down upon and called demeaning names such as zvidhuura (fake people). Inter-Sex Persons   Inter-sex persons are not recognised at law. National identity documents are categorised in the conventional male and female sex categories, without provision of inter-sex.  Parents determine sex of inter-sex persons at an early age before puberty or when children are old enough to identify themselves as male or female.  The law does not accommodate inter-sex persons who wish to change their sex on their identity documents as their bodies transform at puberty. Persons with Disabilities            User-unfriendly DRG infrastructure for wheel chair users, e.g. no ramps or rails Information on DRG services, requirements and legislation are not in accessible format for persons with disabilities, such as audio or braille. Lack of sign language interpreters in DRG Offices. Lack of capacity and awareness by DRG officials to provide disability sensitive services. Allegations of ill-treatment, abuse and name calling of persons with disabilities by some DRG Officials. Negative and discriminatory attitudes by families of persons with disabilities resulting in hiding them in their houses and not registering them Mentally impaired mothers often fail to register their children due to lack of support from relatives, resulting in generations of unregistered children Financial dependency on relatives to cover registration costs. Lack of identifying features of disabilities on identity cards render persons with disabilities vulnerable especially in emergency situations. Minority Groups San Community  High illiteracy and poverty levels marginalised them and made access to documentation difficult.  Language barriers affect access to documentation.  Long distances and costs of travel to DRG Offices affect access to documentation.  Understanding of the importance and value of registration is not appreciated.  Most births are home births which make registration difficult as there are no birth confirmation records.         Tonga Community Long distances and costs of accessing DRG Offices is a matter of concern Some communities were prone to attacks by wildlife as some had to walk an average of 25KM to access DRG services. Lack of awareness of registration requirements is a barrier to accessing registration. Coloured Community (mixed race) National identity documents of Coloured persons classify their place of origin as double zero, meaning that no place of origin is assigned to them. This means they cannot access land from places of origin as none was assigned to them, yet there are born in Zimbabwe. Doma Community Doma people live in remote areas where social services are not accessible. Long distances and costs of accessing RG Offices was a matter of concern. Nearest RG Office from Chapoto (in Mashonaland Central is about 105km), transport is very costly, especially when covering witness costs. xv xiv