Digital rights and freedoms should be accorded the same protection as offline rights and freedoms. Protection of freedom of expression, access to information, data protection and privacy have been guaranteed in international and regional instruments to which Zimbabwe is a party. Consequently, they must be considered in the recommendations made to Zimbabwe during the third cycle of the UPR. During the second cycle of the UPR, Zimbabwe received 260 recommendations from 86 countries. Out of these recommendations, 16 referred to the right to freedom of expression, three were focused on the right of access to information and two referenced the right to privacy. According to the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (POTRAZ), Internet penetration in Zimbabwe was 61.1% as at the end of the first quarter of 2021. This shows that as the online community in Zimbabwe grows, so does the obligation to protect and to fulfil human rights online. This is in line with Zimbabwe’s obligations under applicable provisions of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and Articles 17 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on the rights to privacy and freedom of opinion and expression respectively. This is also in addition to Zimbabwe’s responsibility to protect these rights online under the various provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
