30 7.1.3 Anti-Impunity litigation 84 year old Kandros Purazeni, a village head in Chingwizi, sued ZRP officers after he was brutally assaulted 99 In 2015, ZLHR obtained at least 11 judgments of monetary damages against police officers who were responsible for committing acts of torture. The majority of the cases finalised involved villagers from Chingwizi who had been tortured by police during their arrest in August 2014. These cases increased accountability for human rights violations that were perpetrated by state actors. ZLHR Annual Report 2015 Chingwizi Villagers v Commissioner General of Police and Minister of Home ZLHR brought thirty-five cases on behalf of the Chingwizi villagers who are part of the community of Chingwizi who had been arbitrarily arrested, beaten and arrested at Chingwizi Transit Camp on 3 August 2014 after they had protested the squalid conditions they were living under. The villagers are part of a group of the more than fifteen thousand victims of internal displacement as a result of a man-mad disaster caused by the collapse of the Tokwe-Mukosi dam wall and failure by government to anticipate the disaster that eventually led to the loss of homes, and all sources of livelihood for the families affected by the collapsed dam. Following the arrest of the villagers ZLHR intervened to firstly defend the villagers who were indiscriminately arrested and assaulted by the police. ZLHR then filed anti-impunity claims for damages against the police for violation of the rights of the villagers and the failure by the State to offer the villagers the protection of the law. This case is in line with ZLHR’s philosophy of using litigation as a tool to ensure that the duty bearers of human rights remain accountable to the primary rights-holders who are the citizens.

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