which if it is not to be abolished will have to be entirely overhauled. In addition, however, such institutions have to have the political and financial backing of the Government, without undue interference from it. In a democracy these independent bodies are accountable to parliament and not to the executive, and civil society needs to do whatever it can to popularize them and to advocate for their implementation. The Summary recommended the creation of several other 38 independent commissions, including ones to deal with corruption, the land issue, gender issues and so on. While these other commissions would not impact so obviously and directly on the interests of victims as a HRC would, they are all important, and indicate the recognition by the symposium of the broader social and economic factors which underpin human rights in a developing country such as Zimbabwe. In general terms, therefore, the future protection of human rights and in particular the implementation of effective remedies for victims of violations, will necessitate the creation of new bodies as well as the strengthening and rebuilding of existing machinery. The country’s economic collapse, widespread corruption, emigration of skilled officials, public service demoralization, and the abandonment of the rule of law, have all gravely undermined the administration of justice in recent years. This has created tremendous practical problems which will need to be tackled in parallel with the introduction of new innovative mechanisms such as a HRC, police complaints body and so on. The role of civil society should be to participate vigorously in all the necessary processes of assessment and consultation preceding the creation of these, and to keep them firmly on the agenda. A lot can be learned from regional and international developments in regard to institutional safeguards to help prevent the recurrence of human rights violations. A new Government will need all the help it can get, but civil society should not wait until it arrives to build and 38 Ibid. 29