Zimbabwean activist group Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has produced an app for mobile phones that will enable people to report human rights abuses.
The app, named SPECC, enables users to report a breach of rights – whether these involve violence or take another form – to the ZPP. The ZPP has been monitoring human rights abuses in Zimbabwe for two decades.
The ZPP says that the app is geared to documenting ‘unjust treatment and infringement of human rights you may be witnessing or experiencing’. It guarantees users anonymity, unless they choose to provide a phone number ‘for a human rights defender to get in touch’.
Zimbabwe has experienced widespread failures in the provision of services such as water and education. The app would assist in dealing with this.
Perhaps more pertinently, Zimbabwe is to have elections in 2023. There are widespread fears that these will be marred by violence and intimidation.