Davidson and Purohit: The Zimbabwean Human Rights Crisis: A Collaborative Approach to International Advocacy YALE HUMAN RIGHTS & DEVELOPMENT L.J. [Vol. 7 developments in Zimbabwe that had, or potentially could have, a negative impact on the work of local human rights defenders. In a similar vein, a Zimbabwean civil society initiative was launched in early 2003, to create a Human Rights Defenders Emergency Fund. This fund is designed to be supported by international groups concerned to ensure that local human rights defenders are able to operate in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and other local groups are administering the fund, which has been set up to support the "'rapid reaction' provision of legal services to human rights defenders across Zimbabwe who have been arrested, detained or otherwise targeted by state organs or affiliates as a result of their work in the human rights and civil society sector." 36 The Fund is used to cover emergency legal fees for lawyers provided to human rights defenders who have been detained or arrested. This initiative resembles the approach taken during the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, whereby the "Defence and Aid in South Africa" fund (which became the International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa - IDAF) was formed. The IDAF was a vital instrument in the fight against apartheid, and its importance was underscored during the final IDAF meeting in 1991 when Oliver Tambo, the anti-apartheid leader and former national chairperson of the ANC, said: Today I cannot but recall many very special and personal memories of the numerous ways in which the Fund was able to help our people in their time of need. How many more of our political prisoners would have been executed? How many more detainees would have been brutally tortured? How many families of those detained and imprisoned would have been destitute, if it had not been for IDAF? Above all, IDAF stood with us during our 37 darkest days. Assistance from international civil society groups to their Zimbabwean counterparts cannot, however, be limited to the external dissemination of information and intermittent attempts to help protect individual human rights defenders. During a mission to Zimbabwe and South Africa in February and March 2003, the authors discussed how best a U.S.-based NGO such as Human Rights First could be supportive of local civil society actors. This dialogue confirmed our opinion that supporting the advocacy efforts of the Zimbabwean groups would be counter-productive if it followed the usual model of western-based organizations, taking the lead in raising concerns at a governmental and inter-governmental level http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hrdzimbabwe/hrdzimbabwe.htm. 36 Press Release, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, The Human Rights Defenders Emergency Fund (Apr. 24, 2003), at http://www.kubatana.net/htnl/archive/hr/030424zlhr.asp?sector=HR. 37 Oliver Tambo, Speech at the Final Conference of International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa (May 24, 1991), at http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/or/or912.html/. Published by Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository, 2004 15