By Aldridge Dzvene
Speaker of the Parliament of Zimbabwe Hon Advocate Jacob Francis Nzwidamilimo Mudenda has emerged as one of the most assertive voices at the 151st Inter Parliamentary Union IPU Assembly in Geneva calling on Parliaments across the world to reclaim their authority as protectors of human dignity at a moment he says humanity stands on the brink of moral collapse. In a powerful and analytically driven address Hon Advocate Mudenda said worsening armed conflicts climate shocks and geopolitical rivalries have pushed the world into an era where the rules meant to protect civilians are routinely ignored and the scale of suffering exceeds the international community’s willingness to respond.
Aligning with the Assembly’s theme Upholding Humanitarian Norms and Supporting Humanitarian Action in Times of Crisis he warned that international humanitarian law is facing its biggest stress test since the Geneva Conventions were adopted and that global institutions risk losing legitimacy if they fail to enforce the very principles they were created to defend. The Speaker arrived in Geneva on 20 October 2025 to join Heads of Parliaments engaged in dialogue running from the 18th to the 23rd October where he immediately challenged lawmakers to restore accountability in humanitarian governance.
He noted that more than 350 million war affected civilians have been violently uprooted from their homes stripped of livelihoods and pushed into chronic insecurity not because the law lacks clarity but because power continues to overshadow morality. Hospitals are bombed doctors are targeted and entire populations are denied humanitarian access yet global reaction remains selective and tempered by political alliances and economic interests. Hon Advocate Mudenda stressed that neutrality in the face of human suffering is not diplomacy it is complicity.
He placed Africa’s crises firmly on the global agenda highlighting the tragedy in the Democratic Republic of Congo where millions have perished in a decade and Sudan where conflict famine and displacement have ravaged communities. He warned that instability in Madagascar must not be allowed to follow the same pattern of forgotten humanitarian emergencies. These African realities he insisted should sit at the center not at the periphery of global humanitarian diplomacy because the value of African lives is equal to any in Europe or the Middle East.
However Hon Advocate Mudenda also reframed Africa not as a helpless recipient of aid but as a source of progressive humanitarian legal frameworks. The African Union’s Kampala Convention he argued is a model treaty for protecting internally displaced populations and within the Southern African Development Community SADC the Protocol on Politics Defence and Security Cooperation together with the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan show that the region is actively strengthening systems for peace conflict prevention and emergency response. He said Africa is ready to lead but global equity must allow the continent’s voice to influence how humanity is protected.
Through a series of strategic diplomatic engagements on the sidelines of the Assembly including with Hon Thoko Didiza Speaker of the Parliament of South Africa Hon Fatma Öncü Head of the Turkish delegation IPU Secretary General Mr Martin Chungong and SADC Parliamentary Forum Secretary General Ms Boemo Sekgoma Hon Advocate Mudenda demonstrated that Zimbabwe sees humanitarian diplomacy as a core instrument of its foreign policy and a pillar of regional stability and socio economic progress.
He rooted his call for action in a universal ethical framework referencing the Roman Catholic Church’s Jubilee of Hope observing that hope must translate into global multilateral action that prioritizes dignity over dominance and peace over profit. For him Parliaments cannot behave merely as observers of global suffering they are mandated to be architects of a humane world order and must therefore lead with laws that defend the sanctity of life regardless of race geography or geopolitical usefulness.
Hon Advocate Mudenda left the Assembly with a challenge that pierces diplomatic comfort. If humanitarian law continues to be optional the world will be remembered as a civilization that had rules to protect the innocent and chose not to use them. Parliaments he said have reached a defining moment where silence becomes an endorsement of brutality and action becomes the legacy of leadership. In this defining era history will record whether Parliaments legislated for power or for humanity.
