Presidential Election in March 2002.5 This phase saw the persistent decline of the economy, rule of law, and the independence of the judiciary.6 In 2003, human rights violations continued with the same intensity during mayoral, local, and parliamentary by-elections.7 Violence escalated again in mid-2003, when the MDC began mass protests with the stay-aways, the army being called in to buttress the riot squad even though the mass protests were largely peaceful. There has been no improvement in the adherence to human rights between 2003 and the present. Although it is noteworthy that the pre-election period of 2005 saw a decrease in actual violence and torture,8 the levels of intimidation towards citizens were still far too high for the elections to be deemed free and fair.9 The Human Rights Forum still exists today as there has been no significant change in the commission of human rights violations by State officials or State sanctioned institutions or individuals. 1.1 The prevailing context in Zimbabwe Any analysis of the legal cases mounted by or on behalf of victims of organized violence must be located within the prevailing context in Zimbabwe. The Human Rights Forum has published 60 monthly Political Violence reports since July 2001 in which there are monthly statistics for the organized violence and torture that has taken place. These include the reports for the first three months of 2006, but, for the analysis that follows, the data for 2006 have been excluded since these months cannot be taken as indicative of any lengthy trend for 2006. Thus, the data below are concerned with 57 months only. As can be seen from Table 1, the monthly Political Violence reports indicate that a total of 15,523 violations have been reported. Here it should be remembered that a report of a violation may include more than one violation per report, and also may involve more than one person whose rights have been violated. Thus, the data below should not be taken to represent 15,523 persons, and, without resorting to an analysis of the database from which the reports were generated, it is possible that this total may represent either more or fewer than 15,523 individuals. 5 According to an Amani Trust Report, ‘It was clear that more systematic forms of torture were being employed, there was wide spread geographical spread in the various forms of torture, the perpetrators were increasingly members of the youth militia and most of torture was more and more being inflicted at the bases of the youth militia.’ Amani Trust, The Presidential Elections 2002 and the Post-election Period in Zimbabwe (Harare: Amani Trust, 2002). 6 An independent judiciary is essential to achieve stability and the rule of law, but, in Zimbabwe, the judiciary was under extreme State pressure from early 2000. Several senior judges who demonstrated their independence were removed after general intimidation and specific threats. In early 2001, Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay was among those forced to step down, and he was replaced by a well-known ZANU(PF) supporter, Godfrey Chidyausiku. 7 The police began to use more sophisticated forms of torture, including electric shock. Electric wires were placed on the genitals of MDC MP Job Sikhala and prominent human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba, and electric shocks were administered, among other forms of physical abuse. See Gabriel Shumba’s statement presented to the United States Congress, House Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights, Washington DC, 10 March 2004: <http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/108/shu031004.htm>. 8 Torture takes many forms and is perpetrated by the police, the army, the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), the militia, war veterans and party members. Beatings, falanga, rape, and electric shock are some of the methods being used. However, the problem in Zimbabwe is that ordinary party supporters are also committing abuses and getting away with it. The abuses are taking place amid mass hunger, economic collapse and HIV/AIDS, and there are no official records of political violence. See Redress, Torture in Zimbabwe: Past and Present, June 2005. 9 A number of national and international statements and reports criticized the elections: see the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, Statistical Pattern Analysis and Hypothesis Testing of the 2005 Parliamentary Elections in Zimbabwe; Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe: Statement on the Media Environment in Zimbabwe Prior to the March 2005 Elections, 30 March 2005; Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Report on the March 2005 Parliamentary Elections; international groups include Amnesty International, Zimbabwe: An Assessment of Human Rights Violations in the Run Up to the March 2005 Parliamentary Election. 2