5.0 Magnitude of rights violations There was a marked decline in human rights violations in 2009 compared to previous years. This fall can be attributed to the establishment of the GNU and the relative political stability that it has created. It might also be due to the fact that 2009 was not an election year. Generally, in the past decade there have been significantly more violations in years in which political processes have occurred. However, a look at total violations for the year shows that a positive relationship between political processes and violence still exists. An independent, consolidated and relatively comprehensive quantification of diverse human rights violations for 2009 was compiled by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), and findings are shown in Figures 2 and 3. It is clear from these data that there is a positive relationship between major political events and human rights violations. The swearing-in of former opposition leaders into government at the beginning of the year and the temporary withdrawal of the MDC-T from the inclusive government towards the end of the year caused a rise in violations. It is also clear that the levels of violence were significantly lower in 2009 than in 2008. This cannot, however, be said to be an improvement in the human rights record for the reasons highlighted above. 2008 2009 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec Fig. 2: Number of human rights violations, 2008 and 2009 2008 2009 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 rape murder assault kidnapping torture harrasment displacement discrimination attempted rape malicious damage attempted murder unlawful detention theft/looting to property Fig. 3: Number of human rights violations, by type of violation, 2008 and 2009 Zimbabwe Human Rights Report – 2009 27