15 be addressed from the perspective of the survivors as it affects more than the survivors‟ physical wellbeing, but also impacts upon their psychological, economic and political status. Rape survivors need the co-operation of all sectors - government departments, civil society and development partners - to work together for proper healing to take place. It will also be important to ensure that national sexual violence laws are enforced and the culture of impunity is done away with in keeping 16 with local, regional and international instruments , and that crimes against women will be investigated and prosecuted and the perpetrators brought to justice. Definition of Rape In Zimbabwean law, rape can only be perpetrated by a male on a woman. 17 In terms of Zimbabwe‟s criminal statute , any male person who knowingly has sexual intercourse or anal sexual intercourse with a female person, and, at the time of the intercourse, the female person has not consented to it, and he knows that she has not consented to it, or realises that there is a real risk or possibility that she may not have consented to it, is guilty of rape. 18 The absence of consent is a universal element of any definition of rape. However, the degree of coercion which should be considered sufficient to constitute a lack of consent is highly contested and difficult to define. At one extreme would be a requirement that the coercion consists of physical force which could not be resisted, whilst at the other end would be the situation where a man has sexual intercourse with his wife knowing that she feels obliged to allow this to keep the marriage intact due to financial necessity or for the well being of their children. Whether this latter situation should constitute rape or not may depend on the circumstances of each particular case, and it is impossible to provide an all encompassing definition. The solution of the legislature is to leave it to the judiciary to determine whether, in the particular circumstances, there was an absence of consent to sexual intercourse. The Zimbabwean definition is wide enough to allow the courts to take psychological and any other factors deemed to be coercive into account, thus conforming to the trend in international jurisprudence. Before Zimbabwe‟s common law was codified by statute, it retained elements of the atavistic and patriarchal Roman–Dutch law requirement that the intercourse must be an act capable of resulting in conception before it could be held to constitute rape. The definition has been expanded to include coerced anal intercourse as rape. It may be suggested that this definition still remains too narrow and should provide that rape is the invasion of the body of a person by conduct resulting in penetration of any part of the body of the victim or perpetrator with a sexual organ or of the anal or genital opening of the victim with any object or any other part of the body. 19 However, this conduct is criminalized in Zimbabwean law under the rubric of “aggravated indecent assault”, and the law specifically provides that the penalty shall be the same as that for rape. Accordingly, the legal effect is the same as if the definition of rape had been as expansive as provided above. This remains objectionable to some on the grounds that the trauma experienced by the victim is equally severe in all instances of penetration, and that patriarchal considerations of procreative possibility are retained in classifying coerced penetration, where there is no possibility of conception, as an implicitly lesser offence. Similar comments arise from the fact that the legislation on aggravated indecent assault is gender neutral, and not like rape confined to a male perpetrator and female 15 16 17 18 19 The Nairobi Declaration on Women and Girls Right to Remedy and Reparation. available http://www.womensrightscoalition.org/site/reparation/signature_en.php (Accessed 10 October 2010) The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development ,( 2008) in articles 20-25 makes provision for the implementation of a variety of strategies aimed at eliminating all forms of gender based violence. There are specific stipulations for the provision of a comprehensive package of treatment and care for survivors of gender based violence. The protocol has specific targets to be achieved by 2015. Zimbabwe ratified the Protocol in October 2009. Also the African Charter on Human and People‟s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820. Section 64 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 09:23. The lack of consent may, of course, arise through legal incapacity to consent. Section 66 of the same Act.