IX. Zimbabwe’s International Human Rights Obligations Since the March 29 general elections, the government of Zimbabwe has been responsible for numerous and widespread violations of international human rights law. These include torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, arbitrary arrests and detention, and extrajudicial executions. In addition to protections provided under its Constitution,122 Zimbabwe is party to international human rights treaties, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights123 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),124 that prohibit such practices. Governments have a duty to investigate and prosecute serious violations of physical integrity under international law. The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors the compliance of state parties to the ICCPR, has stated that governments not only have a duty to protect their citizens from such violations, but also to investigate violations when they occur and to bring the perpetrators to justice.125 According to the committee, when investigations uncover violations of human rights: States Parties must ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. As with failure to investigate, failure to bring to justice perpetrators of such violations could in and of itself give rise to a separate breach of the Covenant. These obligations arise notably in respect of those violations recognized as criminal under either domestic or international law, such as torture and similar cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (article 7), summary and arbitrary [and] killing (article 6) … Indeed, the problem of impunity for these violations, a matter of sustained concern by the Committee, may well 122 Chapter 3, the Bill of Rights, Constitution of Zimbabwe 1979. 123 African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted June 27, 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, entered into force October 21, 1986, ratified by Zimbabwe on May 30, 1986. 124 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), entered into force March 23, 1976, acceded to by Zimbabwe on August 13, 1991. 125 U.N. Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 31 on Article 2 of the Covenant: The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant, U.N. Doc. CCPR/C/74/CRP.4/Rev.6 (2004), para 15. 57 Human Rights Watch 2008