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The Lancaster House Agreement is an agreement signed on 21 December 1979 in Lancaster House, following the conclusion of a constitutional conference where different parties discussed the future of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, formerly known as Rhodesia. [1] [2] The agreement effectively concluded the Rhodesian Bush War.
The constitution of Zimbabwe had been drawn up as part of the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979 and had served the country for nearly 20 years. There was a widespread feeling in Zimbabwe that it was too heavily influenced by the country's colonial past, and that a new constitution written in the light of the experience of independence was desirable.
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. [1] A proposed constitution, drafted by a constitutional convention, was defeated by a constitutional referendum during 2000.
The Zimbabwean Constitution, initially from the Lancaster House Agreement a few months before the 1980 elections, chaired by Lord Carrington, institutionalises majority rule and protection of minority rights. Since independence, the Constitution has been amended by the government to provide for:
Adapting the constitution of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence , Zimbabwe Rhodesia was governed by a Prime Minister and Cabinet chosen from the majority party in a 100-member House of Assembly. [35] [36] A 40-member Senate acted as the upper House, and both together chose a figurehead President in whose name the government was conducted.
This parliamentary structure was retained upon Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. Per the constitution produced by Lancaster House Agreement in 1979, the Senate was composed of 40 seats and the House of Assembly was composed of 100, with ten Senate seats and 20 seats in the House of Assembly reserved for white Zimbabweans.
Land reform in Zimbabwe officially began in 1980 with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement, as a program to redistribute farmland from white Zimbabweans to black Zimbabweans as an effort by the ZANU-PF government to give more control over the country's extensive farmlands to the black African majority.
United Nations Security Council resolution 463, adopted on 2 February 1980, after considering the latest developments in Southern Rhodesia and Resolution 460 (1979) in which it was noted that an agreement had produced a Constitution for a free and independent Zimbabwe and majority rule, the Council called on all parties to comply with the Lancaster House Agreement and the administering power ...