Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum The new Government ignored the opportunity it was given to overturn its colonial inheritance of human rights abuses. It continued the state of emergency and deliberately left in place laws which offended against the Declaration of Rights. Among these – which specifically affected political rights - were the Unlawful Organisations Act, the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, the Censorship Act and the Broadcasting Act. It also legislated after Independence to continue indemnity for gross breaches of human rights, in the 1982 Emergency Powers (Security Forces Indemnity) Regulations. Following Zimbabwe’s change to an executive presidency in 1987, Government amended the Constitution, not the offending statutes, when the Supreme Court found that specific laws offended against constitutional principles and rights. Delay in executing death row prisoners is one case in point. The Supreme Court upheld the view that extended delays, of years after sentence was confirmed, constituted inhuman treatment. The Constitution was promptly changed, in 1993, to allow such delays. However, especially in recent years, there have been many achievements in enforcing basic constitutional rights, against both inherited and new legislation. Various state monopolies, together with the 1995 Private Voluntary Organisations Act and certain provisions of the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, have been deemed unconstitutional. These court decisions have strained the relationship between Zimbabwe’s admirably independent judiciary and what many have seen as an increasingly dictatorial executive. For example, in the eyes of many, Zanu-PF has recurrently used political violence as its policy in matters electoral and the State President has abused, on numerous occasions, his constitutional prerogative of mercy to pardon those responsible for the political abuse of fundamental rights. He has on three occasions in the past decade pardoned members of his own party whom the courts have convicted of assault, torture and even attempted murder. Most recently, in October 2000, he granted amnesty for all but the gravest misdeeds (murder, rape and theft) during the political violence. Torture, kidnapping, arson and other breaches of property rights were all condoned. Some 750 criminal cases, overwhelmingly against Zanu-PF supporters, had to be dropped, leaving the victims only civil recourse through the courts. Many more complaints were not even investigated. (c) Basic rights in 2000 Zimbabweans currently enjoy constitutional protection of the following basic rights: to life; to personal liberty; to protection from slavery, forced labour, inhuman treatment, degrading punishment and arbitrary search and entry; to freedom of conscience, expression, assembly, association and movement; to protection from discrimination on the grounds of race, tribe, place of origin, political opinions, colour, creed and gender. All of these rights are subject to the overall qualification that their enjoyment may not infringe the rights and freedoms of others. The Constitution also includes specific derogations from these rights, including the death penalty and the physical punishment of minors. The protection of property has been severely hedged by Amendments 14 and 16, which exclude land (especially but not exclusively farmland) owned under freehold title from the protections afforded to other forms of property. All family, personal and customary law is excluded (by s.23) from constitutional regulation of any discrimination it may practise. Finally, the specific provisions for protection of the law depend on the State upholding the rule of law, and during 2000 there have been numerous instances in which the State has failed to act in accordance with court orders. Most but not all of these cases have involved property rights of various kinds. Moreover, few international treaties, conventions, and agreements to which Zimbabwe is signatory have yet been incorporated as domestic statutes, as required by Constitutional Amendment 12 of 8