Table 8 Status of cases in progress and concluded Number % % of total Cases in progress (n = 131) Initial notice Pleadings Awaiting trial Awaiting pre-trial conference 11 50 17 53 8.40 38.17 12.98 40.46 3.78 17.18 5.84 18.21 Cases concluded (n = 57) Dismissed Judgment for plaintiff Appealed 5 51 1 8.77 89.47 1.75 1.72 17.53 0.34 As noted above, almost 90% of the cases concluded have gone in the favour of the plaintiff, and, if this trend were to continue, then it could be expected that a further 117 cases would be added to the total, and that, overall, the plaintiffs would be successful in 40% of cases brought in respect of alleged human rights violations. This is not a trivial finding in the light of the trends noted in the data from the monthly Political Violence reports of the Human Rights Forum. By way of simple statistical extension, this would mean that, of the 15,523 violations reported by the Human Rights Forum, it might be expected that some 6,000 cases would result in judgments against the State. Such extrapolations may not be justified, and the courts would have to judge each case on its own merits. However, the actual findings reported above still allow some robust conclusions. Even allowing for 42% of the cases not actually reaching the stage of legal proceedings, almost 90% of the cases that did reach actual litigation were successful in favour of the plaintiffs. These findings from the courts provide strong corroboration of the reports of the Human Rights Forum, and strongly contradict the views of the government and the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to the effect that spurious or mischievous reports are made about human rights violations in Zimbabwe. 2.2 Defendants The majority of the cases were brought against the police, who are sued through the Commissioner of Police and the Minister of Home Affairs. The army has frequently been brought in to re-enforce efforts of the police during riots, but it has also been used outside major civilian disturbances: this is reflected by the fact that in some of the cases both the police and the army are sued simultaneously, the army being sued through the Minister of Defence. There are several cases of individuals being sued: these are mainly party supporters acting either on their own accord or with the support of their party. Table 9 shows the number of times each defendant was sued; in some cases the defendants were sued individually and in others as co-defendants. Table 9 Number of times each defendant was sued Defendants Ministry of Home Affairs Commissioner of Police Ministry of Defence Ministry of Justice President’s Office Other Total Number of times sued With Ministry of With Ministry of Home Affairs Individually Home Affairs and Commissioner of Police 2 n/a n/a n/a 147 n/a 3 45 71 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 5 18 n/a 91 150 50 11 Total 2 147 119 n/a n/a 23 291