Most of the interlocutors recalled with anxiety the atmosphere that had prevailed before and after the election period in 2008, characterized by politically-motivated violence, torture, evictions, maiming, extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances and other violations. Those who had personally been victims during the elections, or whose relatives, friends or acquaintances had been subjected to such acts of violence, feared for the worst. Those fears were compounded by the fact that those responsible for the violations, including the youth militia, had never been investigated and were freely roaming the streets. Over 200 people are reported to have been extra-judicially executed in a targeted and systematic way, and there has been no serious investigations or prosecution of the perpetrators and all those responsible. The interlocutors feared that in case an election was held in the prevailing atmosphere, a bloodbath was feared. The “infrastructure of violence”, comprising youth militias, war veterans, some soldiers, police force, intelligence operatives, ZANU PF local leaders, hitmen and torture basis set up in 2008, has never been dismantled notwithstanding the GNU. It may have declined at some point, but there have been recurring signs of its re-activation since the call for elections. III. Legal framework for the protection of human rights defenders 1. Zimbabwe’s regional and international obligations with regard to the protection of human rights defenders The Zimbabwean Government is bound by a number of regional and international instruments that impose obligations on the State to ensure that people in Zimbabwe enjoy a minimum standard of basic and fundamental human rights, as contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These instruments include: – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ratified in 1991); – the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ratified in 1991); – the Convention on the Rights of the Child (ratified in 1990); – the Convention Against all Forms of Discrimination against Women (ratified in 1991); – the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ratified in 1986) and its Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (ratified in 2008); – the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ratified in 1995) and – the SADC Treaty5. 2. Government position on regional and international recommendations on the situation of human rights defenders The mission observed that some governmental and security authorities showed a negative attitude towards human rights defenders. Despite the recommendations addressed to the authorities of Zimbabwe by regional and international human rights mechanisms regarding compliance with the international obligations relating to fundamental rights and freedoms, the Government of Zimbabwe has taken no meaningful action to address the abuses or violations pointed out in the reports of regional and international bodies. For instance, the Universal Periodic Review of Zimbabwe carried out by the United Nations Human Rights Council in October 2011 issued recommendations calling on the State to “stop impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of human rights violations against civil society activists, NGOs and human rights defenders and [to] incorporate the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders in national legislation” and to “ensure that human rights defenders, independent journalists or lawyers and civil society representatives are effectively protected from any form of intimidation and harassment while performing their legitimate duties”6. Member States of the Human Rights Council also called on the Zimbabwean authorities to “guarantee freedom of expression for the entire population, especially journalists and human rights defenders, in the run up of the next presidential elections” and to “adopt necessary measures to guarantee the full enjoyment of the rights to freedom of assembly and association, and 5. http://www.sadc.int/index/browse/page/171 6. UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review (Zimbabwe), UN Document A/HRC/19/14, December 19, 2011. 10 The Observatory ZIMBABWE: Ongoing risks for human rights defenders in the context of political deadlock and pre-electoral period The Observatory ZIMBABWE: Ongoing risks for human rights defenders in the context of political deadlock and pre-electoral period 11