3. Recalling the United Nations General Assembly resolution 53-144 of 9 December 1998 which outlines the rights and responsibilities of individuals, groups and organs of society to promote and protect universally recognised human rights and fundamental freedoms. 4. Emphasising the important role that individuals, civil society organisations and groups play in the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. 5. Fully accepting that historical social and economic imbalances must be remedied in order to achieve social and economic justice in Zimbabwe; 6. Insisting that strategies must be pursued that will cater for the needs of victims of violence and that the victims will be consulted about their needs and what the victims perceived as being the most appropriate mechanisms for satisfying their needs; 7. Understanding that lasting peace can only be achieved where human rights abusers are held accountable and meaningful steps are taken to try to heal the grievous wounds the violators inflicted on their victims and the society; 8. Recognising that it is imperative to preserve and fully and accurately record the past history of human rights violations. Based on these general considerations, the Zimbabwean participants resolved as follows: The abuses in the past Throughout colonial occupation, black Zimbabweans were oppressed by the regime and denied all civil and political rights. They were deprived of their land and socially and economically marginalised. From 1960 until 1980 they suffered even more widespread and systematic gross human rights violations. These violations and the subsequent impunity created the foundations for the human rights abuses experienced in subsequent decades. In the 1980s large scale human rights violations occurred in the southern and western regions of Zimbabwe during military operations ordered by the government. These again were widespread, systematic and planned. From 2000 onwards there have been increasing levels of violence resulting in pervasive human rights abuses. All available evidence indicates that the government has engaged in a widespread, systematic, and planned campaign of organised violence and torture to suppress normal democratic activities and to unlawfully influence electoral process. The government has also created and the law enforcement agencies have vigorously applied highly repressive legislation. These measures were directed at ensuring that the government retained power rather than overcoming resistance to achieving equitable land redistribution and correcting historical iniquities. The human rights abuses, social and economic injustices suffered by the people are not merely the product of colonial injustices, but also the product of misgovernance, and massive corruption and asset stripping by State officials, persons within the private business sector, and others. Accountability The delegates noted that during the pre- and post-independence periods there have been successive amnesties and Presidential pardons for many of the persons who committed gross human rights 42