here that this will be one of its main purposes), will criminal prosecutions necessarily follow? To date most people in Zimbabwe civil society would instinctively say ‘Yes’, and loudly, but is it as simple as that? Civil society needs to examine closely and engage in further debate on this extremely important issue. Criminal proceedings in a transitional context can face all or some of the following problems: i) the strain it can put on the criminal justice system, especially when there are hundreds if not thousands of perpetrators who are deserving of prosecution; ii) the time and costs involved, given that criminal trials need evidence, witnesses, proof beyond reasonable doubt and the proper implementation of all the other aspects of criminal procedure, including appeals; iii) if attempts are made to speed-up the process there can be the real danger of ‘summary, emergency or victors justice,’ and the further abrogation of rule-of-law norms; iv) the difficulties caused by the aforementioned issues (numbers, time and costs) even in a country with a sound economy and a fully functioning legal system, will obviously be greatly exacerbated in Zimbabwe where the economy has collapsed along with many aspects of the administration of justice (e.g. corrupt prosecutors, magistrates and clerks, politically biased judges, a Zanu-PF police force), and where even those who are not corrupt or politically biased are demoralized and struggling to maintain the little that remains of minimum standards; v) purely legal issues such as past amnesties and prescription (normally a criminal prosecution must be brought within 20 years of the crime, apart from murder) which, although they can be dealt with legislatively, can also further delay already lengthy judicial processes; vi) prosecutions are essentially aimed at establishing individual criminal guilt, not political and/or moral responsibility, nor are they easily able or guaranteed to expose the wider patterns, causes and practices of state violence and torture which constitute gross and systematic human rights violations – some individuals can be 21