fundamental importance of freedom of expression as a means of ensuring respect for all human rights, stating that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and an indispensable component of democracy.30 The police have often used key provisions of the Public Order and Security Act to justify arrests that violate the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.31 Sections 25 and 26 of POSA grant the police wide powers to prevent and breakup public gatherings if they are deemed to endanger public order. The police have used these provisions to strictly monitor public meetings or violently disrupt peaceful demonstrations. The police have also loosely interpreted certain provisions of POSA. Section 24 of POSA merely requires that the police be notified ahead of time about a public meeting; once the police have been notified, the meeting can go ahead.32 However, according to civil society activists who spoke to Human Rights Watch, police authorities insist that police permission—and not mere notification—is required to hold public meetings, gatherings or demonstrations. This permission is granted or withheld on arbitrary grounds and is frequently denied to activists who try to hold public meetings or demonstrations. Activists who go ahead with such meetings are then arrested for holding a meeting without permission. The broad wording of key provisions of POSA and the misapplication of some provisions of the act has resulted in violations of the rights of Zimbabweans to freely assemble, criticize the government and the president, and engage in, advocate, or organize acts of peaceful civil disobedience. Most of the activists who have been arrested under POSA informed Human Rights Watch that charges against them were either dropped or dismissed in court. 30 African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Resolution on the Right to Freedom of Association, Tunis, March 1992. 31 The Public Order and Security Act (POSA), 2002. Sections 23–31 of the act regulate the organization and conduct of public gatherings and provide the police with extensive powers to control them. 32 Section 24 of the POSA requires the organizer of a public meeting or gathering to notify the regulating authority (in this case the police) of the intention to hold a public gathering. The organizer of a public gathering is required to give at least four clear days’ written notice of the holding of the gathering to the regulating authority for the area in which the gathering is to be held. “you will be thoroughly beaten” 12