Yale Human Rights and Development Journal, Vol. 7 [2004], Iss. 1, Art. 4 2004] Zimbabwean Human Rights Crisis participants committed to taking specific steps to pursue this program. The concluding statement included a strong expression of condemnation, directed primarily at the Zimbabwean government and its agents. The participants recognized that the current situation in Zimbabwe constitutes "a human rights and humanitarian crisis" and demanded an immediate end to all human rights violations. Tackling the question of land reform, they emphasized the need for a non-partisan and equitable system of land redistribution, taking into account the rights of landless peasants and farm workers. They also stressed that supplies of food aid should be delivered to the population in a non-partisan manner. The participants then set out specific demands addressed at regional governments and institutions, as well as the international community. In particular, they focused on the African Union, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the commonwealth, and the United Nations. After the consultation, the organizers and participants distributed the concluding statement widely, both within Zimbabwe and to all of the governments and institutions mentioned in the document itself. Upon returning to their own countries, participants also engaged in local media outreach in order to encourage greater media coverage within Africa of the reality of the crisis in Zimbabwe. The statement was also used strategically, interjected at appropriate moments such as the meeting of SADC heads of state in late August 2003, and of the commonwealth foreign ministers in September. This approach was intended to ensure that the voices of African civil society groups were at least raised during discussions traditionally restricted to government leaders. In addition, subsequent statements were issued by the consultation participants as a group at strategic moments, in order to demonstrate their ongoing solidarity and 41 commitment to ending the human rights crisis in Zimbabwe. All of the participants in the consultation recognized the importance of developing regional civil society networks with a view to pressuring regional governments to address the human rights crisis in Zimbabwe, and, indeed, in other parts of the region. There was also a clear recognition that advocacy from such networks could help to counter the efforts of President Mugabe and his supporters to construct and maintain their facade of being engaged in an anti-colonial struggle. A recent increase in initiatives by Zimbabwean civil society groups to foster such networks is indeed evident. For example, shortly after the consultation in Botswana, a group of Zimbabwean women traveled to South Africa to speak out about their experiences of rape and sexual violence at the hands of Zanu-PF agents and supporters. In another initiative around the same time, groups 41 For example, the participants issued an End of Year Statement in December 2003, reiterating their concerns and particularly addressing developments in the commonwealth and SADC. The statement can be found at AFRICAN CML SOCIETY CONSULTATION ON ZIMBABWE, END OF YEAR STATEMENT (Dec. 23, 2000), at http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hrd-zimbabwe/hrd-zim 16.htm. http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yhrdlj/vol7/iss1/4 18