A/HRC/44/50/Add.2 2. The situation of trade unions 102. The Special Rapporteur is aware of the difficult environment in which labour unions operate. Their ability to safeguard workers’ rights is restricted by a number of factors, which have significantly weakened their ability to exert influence on legal reforms and the formulation of public policies and put their leaders in dangerous positions as a result of State repression. 103. In terms of legislation, of particular concern to the Special Rapporteur are sections 102 and 104 of the Labour Act. Section 102 defines “essential services” and provides wide discretion to the Minister of Labour to declare what constitutes an essential service, whose workers are denied the right to strike. In turn, section 104 provides that workers seeking to go on strike should give 14-day written notice to the regulating authority. Failure to do so renders the strike illegal, and such workers will not enjoy the right to protest. For example, the Special Rapporteur learned that, in 2016, 1,357 workers of the National Railways of Zimbabwe had been dismissed after the Labour Court ruled that they had not complied with set procedures, ignoring the fact that the same workers were owed a significant amount of money in unpaid salaries. 104. Similarly, the Special Rapporteur considers equally worrying sections 107, 109 and 112 on collective job action, which provide for excessive penalties in case of unlawful collective industrial action. 105. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the charges brought under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and the Public Order and Security Act against workers’ representatives who have been, under certain circumstances, arrested or even abducted for exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Equally worrying are the allegations related to State interference in the activities of trade unions and the acts of intimidation and harassment against their leaders, particularly in the context of the call for the national stay-away in January 2019.19 106. In addition, the protracted economic deterioration and depleted labour force have also affected the action of trade unions, with those in employment focusing on protecting their situation rather than joining trade unions. In addition, as has occurred with other civil society actors, the politically polarized context has resulted in workers associated with unions becoming entrenched in political parties, creating a distorted perception of their mandates and interests and giving some of them a pseudo-political role in an already complex political situation. 107. Despite these factors, the Special Rapporteur believes that the actions of Government need to be consistent with the Constitution and its international commitments, allowing for a more enabling space for trade unions to operate. In this regard, he considers that a positive step is the adoption of legislation in the context of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum, which he hopes will provide for a more robust platform for dialogue among the Government, workers and employers. 108. The Special Rapporteur wishes to acknowledge the work done by the ILO Conference Committee on the Application of Standards, the follow-up to the implementation of the Commission of Inquiry’s recommendations and the most recent observations issued by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations. 3. Participation of civil society in the process of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 109. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges the establishment of an institutional framework to guide implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and particularly the Steering Committee in charge of providing overall guidance and strategic leadership to the whole process, in which civil society has participated. 19 See ZWE 1/2019. 15