RAU| Research and Advocacy Unit

Feb 22
2023

Derek Anton Matyszak obituary: Speaking truth to power

Derek was an activist at heart and believed in the power of the law to protect civil and political
rights.

Jan 30
2023

Ending sexual and gender based violence through capacity building

Sexual and Gender-based Violence is fostered by negative constructs of masculinity and manhood, which portray a picture that males hold qualities superior to women. This paper proffers practical solutions for achieving gender equality and mitigating SGBV scentered on building the capacity of women as political leaders.

Jan 13
2023

Dividend or Disaster? The Youth bulge in SADC

This paper is one in a series looking at the youth in SADC through a variety of different lens, beginning with general perspectives about the countries they live in, it further examines the problem of youth bulges.

Dec 12
2022

UN International Human Rights Day (2022)

Dignity, freedom, and justice for women cannot be realised if women are not safe in their homes, in the schools, in the workplace, and in the public arena. If there is impunity for the organised violence and torture inflicted on women during elections, where the state and the government are constitutionally required to provide safety and act without partiality, then the signal to society is that gender-based violence is condoned.

Dec 09
2022

Do Elections have to be Battlegrounds over Women’s Bodies?

During violent elections in Zimbabwe, women disproportionately bear the brunt of human rights violations. They are often victims of rape, torture, threats, assaults, and arbitrary arrests consequently women fear elections, and this is part of the reason why women are unwilling to become actively involved as candidates. This report proffers democratic solutions to mitigate and eliminate electoral violence targeting women as we draw closer to the 2023 elections.

Dec 05
2022

CHILD PREGNANCIES: WE ARE THE CHANGEMAKERS

The enactment of the Marriages Act, Chapter 5.15, which criminalises Child Marriages and sets the legal age of consent at 18 is laudable. Now is the time to realize effective enforcement of the law. Girls should not be married too soon, let us say no to child brides!

Dec 01
2022

The Youth of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). How do they see themselves, their country, and the prospects for their agency?

This study uses the Afrobarometer data from Round Seven (2016 to 2018) to examine the views of the youth in 10 SADC countries: Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Using a sample of 8280, a range of binary variables were constructed, and used to look at the youth’s views of the following:
• Demography (education, employment, poverty, access to information, etc.)
• Youth and Politics (Perceptions about their countries,
• Social Relationships (

Nov 29
2022

Violence Against Women: The ‘hidden’ mainspring

Most work on bullying and incivility has focused on the workplace, with men twice as likely as women to be the perpetrators, as one group of researchers point out, “it is also possible that the higher incidence of perpetrations by men reflects society’s greater tolerance for men to treat others in a manner that is normally considered unacceptable”.

Reports