Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Amendment Act of 2018

Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Amendment Act of 2018

This bill revises statements of U.S. policy toward Zimbabwe, in particular by:

• stating support for Zimbabweans' efforts to reconstruct and rebuild the nation and come to terms with the past through a process of genuine reconciliation that acknowledges past human rights abuses and orders inquiries into disappearances, including those of human rights activists;
• stating conditions for a strengthened U.S.-Zimbabwe relationship;
• supporting inclusion of Australia, the United Kingdom, the African Union, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in consultations on ways to sanction individuals responsible for deliberate breakdown of the rule of law, politically motivated violence, and intimidation; and
• urging enforcement of the SADC tribunal rulings issued between 2007 and 2010, including disputes involving employment, commercial, and human rights cases surrounding dispossessed Zimbabwean commercial farmers and agricultural companies.

Regarding multilateral debt relief and assistance, the bill:

• urges the Department of the Treasury to direct each U.S. executive director of a multilateral development bank to support efforts to reevaluate plans to restructure, rebuild, reschedule, or eliminate Zimbabwe's sovereign debt held by that bank and provide an analysis based on reasonable financial options to achieve those goals;
• removes as a condition of presidential certification that conditions are met for providing multilateral assistance that the government is making a good faith effort to fulfill the terms of the agreement on ending the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and
• removes a requirement of consistency of the land reform program with agreements reached at the International Donors' Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe in September 1998.

The bill revises the purposes of U.S. assistance supporting land reform mechanisms to remove authority for the payment of acquisition and resettlement costs consistent with the International Donors' Conference. It adds authority for assistance to identify and recover stolen public assets.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov