conduct which the police officer is seeking to discourage is itself unlawful. Under the Police Act it is a disciplinary offence for a police officer to use unnecessary violence or in any way to ill-treat a person in custody.9 In Article 1 of the United Nations Convention against Torture, torture is defined as follows: … any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It is a fundamental right of people to engage in peaceful demonstrations and protests, and the police have a duty to ensure that people are entitled to exercise this right without unreasonable interference. In a democratic country, the laws on protests and demonstrations will merely regulate the way in these rights are exercised to try to prevent violence during these events and to ensure that disruption of traffic is minimised. This can be done by measures such as the provision of police escorts. The police can obviously intervene where a demonstration has become violent or where they have reasonable grounds for believing that the demonstration is likely to be conducted in a violent manner. But even here the police are entitled to use only such force as is reasonably necessary to deal with the situation. In circumstances where it is evident that a demonstration is non-violent, even if it is technically illegal because of non-compliance with prescribed regulatory requirements, the police should try to avoid the use of force. Thus the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials provides as follows: 10 In the dispersal of assemblies that are unlawful but non-violent, law enforcement officials shall avoid the use of force or, where that is not practicable, shall restrict such force to the minimum extent necessary. 9 10 Section 29 read with s 20 of Schedule of Police Act. Adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Havana, Cuba, 27 August to 7 September 1990. Who guards the guards? Violations by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, 2000 to 2006