I n s t i t u t e fo r j us t i ce a n d r eco n ci l iat i o n a fr i c a pr o g r a m m e health after such experiences. Rural women in particular spoke of the need for food, medical treatment and education of their children. Some respondents expressed the view that transitional-justice processes tend to privilege civil and political rights over social, economic and cultural rights, reflecting a bias in the normative human-rights discourse. Providing women with loans and protecting their property rights was suggested by respondents as a means of assuring a significant multiplier effect on gender justice. A lawyer interviewed added her voice to this, arguing that securing women’s land and property rights must be a major focus of recovery efforts, and should be addressed in any national healing project. Some respondents also noted that when the state creates jobs these are usually earmarked for young men, often at the expense of adequate investment in women’s employment and livelihood needs. Hence, it would be inadequate to address one set of political and civil rights and relegate economic and social rights to the background. As Mutua (1996) argues, human powerlessness and human dignity do not respect the commonly held simplistic and linear compartmentalisation of civil, political, economic and social rights. Political needs So far, this paper has argued that governments need to engage more proactively with women during transitional-justice processes. This necessitates the full inclusion of women in political, economic, social and judicial structures so that women are integral to all decisionmaking where laws and public policies are determined. The perceptions of the women interviewed are that the current Zimbabwean government lacks the requisite political will to effect the transformative transitions that would address women’s political rights. Thus, there is need to engender widespread recognition of women’s political rights at all levels of society. The United Nations Security Council’s Resolutions 1820 and 1888 address key elements of gender violence in conflict situations. Resolution 1820, adopted on 19 June 2008, particularly stresses the need to eliminate all forms of violence against civilians, particularly women and girls where rape and violence are used as instruments of warfare (UNIFEM, 1999; Van Reisen and Kabatesi, 2010). The resolution notes that these atrocious acts not only affect the health and safety of women but also the health and security of whole communities, and that the breakdown of law and order leaves women and girls vulnerable to further attacks and with little recourse to justice. Through these resolutions, violence against women is universally recognised as a peace and security issue linked to national healing and reconciliation (Hudson, 2003). While many of the rural and urban women who participated in this study were unaware of the UN Security Council’s various resolutions, those who did know of them noted Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1882, 1888 and 1889 with appreciation. They indicated that they see Resolution 1325 (which was adopted unanimously on 31 October 2000) as offering a robust basis for building a potentially powerful system of gender justice. They argued that it could be useful for: equalising women’s participation in conflict resolution and peace-building; strengthening the protection of women during and after conflict and helping to prevent conflict in the longer term. As a way of strengthening accountability for offences against women, lawyers interviewed expressed the need for consistent reporting mechanisms and indicators against which all these resolutions can be reported. They noted that, while aggregated data is not always easy to obtain, this cannot be a reason for abandoning the struggle for women’s rights and emancipation. They stressed the need for women to record the number of women raped during and after political violence, the number of internally displaced women who had never recovered their property, and the number of women human-rights activists and defenders 10 IJR Zimbabwe Womens needs OP proof 2.indd 10 7/16/2012 11:01:31 AM