Masvingo to New York: Where Does Zimbabwe Stand on Global Governance?
On the evening of 5 October 2026, a hailstorm tore through Masvingo. More than 17,000 households were damaged and 8,500 lost their roofs entirely. Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo Polytechnic, clinics and power lines were hit, and the President declared a State of Disaster. The same storm battered parts of Manicaland, where communities are still rebuilding from Cyclones Idai and Freddy.
Scientists are careful about tying any single storm to climate change. The pattern is harder to argue with. Working with communities across Manicaland, I hear the same story every season: longer dry spells, heavier storms, and less time to recover between them. Zimbabwe produced 0.04% of the world's carbon emissions in 2024, yet our provinces carry some of the heaviest costs.
That is the question that brought me to Young World Federalists. If the harm crosses borders, why does accountability stop at them?
Global institutions are only as strong as the governments willing to build them. So I set out to document where my own government stands on three reforms world federalists campaign for. Here is what the public record shows.
1. Crimes against humanity treaty: Zimbabwe has spoken
The world has treaties against genocide and war crimes, but none yet against crimes against humanity. The UN General Assembly has now decided to negotiate one, at conferences in 2028 and 2029.
In the UN Sixth Committee on 13 October 2025, Zimbabwe welcomed that decision and said it "stands ready to engage constructively." It called crimes against humanity "a vice that corrodes the fabric of society" and said justice must not rest on "selectivity or political expediency." It stressed complementarity, the principle that national courts act first, and the sovereign equality of states. It also pointed to the African Union decision recognising slavery, the transatlantic slave trade, deportation and colonialism as crimes against humanity.
This is the clearest position of the three. Zimbabwe supports the process, on the condition that the treaty applies to powerful and weak states alike.
2. UN Charter review under Article 109: no position yet, but a clear grievance
Article 109 of the UN Charter allows member states to call a General Conference to review it. Zimbabwe has never publicly backed one. Its diplomacy has leaned the other way: it belongs to the Group of Friends in Defence of the Charter, a bloc that argues for protecting the Charter as it stands.
Yet Zimbabwe's own complaint points toward reform. Speaking for Zimbabwe at the UN General Assembly in September 2025, Foreign Minister Prof. Amon Murwira called for comprehensive reform of the Security Council and said, "Decisions on Africa cannot continue to be made without Africa at the table." Africa's common position, the Ezulwini Consensus, asks for two permanent and five non-permanent seats for the continent. Twenty years of ordinary negotiation have not delivered them. A review conference is one route that could break the deadlock.
I support the Ezulwini demand because as long as the veto exists, Africa cannot be equal without it. But as a world federalist, I believe the long-term goal must be a Council where no single state can veto action to protect people.
The timing matters. In June 2026 Zimbabwe won a seat on the Security Council for 2027 to 2028 with 182 votes. For two years, Harare will sit at the table it says Africa is kept away from. When the Charter was signed in 1945, Zimbabwe was Southern Rhodesia, a colony with no seat at all.
3. UN Parliamentary Assembly: backed by Africa's parliament, silent in Harare
A UN Parliamentary Assembly would give elected representatives, not only diplomats, a formal voice at the UN. Zimbabwe's government has taken no public position. But the Pan-African Parliament, a body in which Zimbabwe's own legislators sit, passed resolutions supporting a UN Parliamentary Assembly in 2007 and 2016. On this reform, the opening is in Parliament rather than the ministry.
What this means
Documenting these positions is organising work. Most young people in Manicaland have never heard of Article 109 or a UN Parliamentary Assembly, and most officials have never been asked about them by a young person. Now there is a record to start from.
Local action taught me that resilience matters. The hailstorms of October 2026 taught me that resilience without accountability is not enough.
About the author
Jussa Kudherezera is a development practitioner, youth mentor and educator based in Mutare, Manicaland, Zimbabwe. Through Manica Youth Assembly Trust he works on civic education, governance and youth participation, and he is working with Young World Federalists toward a Zimbabwe chapter.
