Constitution of Zimbabwe

The Constitution of Zimbabwe is the supreme law of Zimbabwe. The independence constitution of 1980 was the result of the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement and is sometimes called the Lancaster Constitution. A proposed constitution, drafted by a constitutional convention, was defeated by a constitutional referendum during 2000.

In practice, the 2008 power-sharing deal provided the structure for much of the government. The three political parties in Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF, MDC-T and MDC-N negotiated a new proposed constitution after a constitutional outreach program.

The new constitution was presented to Parliament on 5 February 2013 and subsequently approved in the referendum of 16 March 2013. Parliament approved it on 9 May 2013 and President Robert Mugabe gave it his assent on 22 May 2013.

Certain provisions of the Constitution (principally the Declaration of Rights and provisions for presidential and parliamentary elections) came into operation on 22 May 2013, when Act 1 of 2013 was published. That date was the “publication day” as defined in paragraph 1 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. The provisions that came into operation then are set out in paragraph 3 of that Schedule.

The rest of the Constitution came into operation on 22 August 2013, when the President was sworn in after the first elections following the Act's assent; this date is the “effective date” as defined in paragraph 1 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. Some of the new constitution's clauses, however, do not take effect for 10 years.

In 2021, disability rights were codified into the Constitution through the National Disability Policy, which was drafted by Senator Rejoice Timire and the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.