7. Conclusions Since the Food Riots in 1998, there has been a steady decline in the observance of human rights in Zimbabwe. This has been well documented in a plethora of reports by Zimbabwean human rights groups, as well as by international human rights groups. These reports have been denied by the Zimbabwe government, and consistent doubts have been cast on the integrity of those publishing the reports. It is for this reason that the current report is so important. This analysis of legal proceedings in respect of gross human rights violations clearly demonstrates the veracity of the claims made by human rights groups: the Zimbabwe government itself is conceding liability for the perpetration of gross human rights violations committed by its agents, particularly the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Zimbabwe National Army. In 90% of the completed cases, either the courts have found for the plaintiffs or the State has conceded liability, and this is not a trivial statistic. As was seen above, these civil cases, which are generally the only remedy available for the victims of State brutality, wholly support the claims of human rights organizations, and provide considerable food for thought. It is evident that the ZRP (and most branches of the ZRP), and the ZNA are far and away the major culprits in the perpetration of human rights violations. Interestingly, the Central Intelligence Organization, which is so frequently accused of gross human rights violations, is rarely named, and violations in the prisons are apparently non-existent. It is relevant to point out here that most human rights reports over the past five years do not cite the ZRP and the ZNA as the major perpetrators but ‘war veterans’, ZANU(PF) supporters, the ZANU(PF) Youth League, and the youth militia. This is due to the fact that these two organs, the ZRP and the ZNA, can be sued since, even if individual perpetrators cannot be named, the organization that they work for can. It is also evident that there is a strong association between detention, torture and the ZRP, but also that torture is not restricted to this concatenation, with the ZNA also frequently being accused of involvement in torture and other serious offences. Detention is, however, a risk for accused persons, and especially for cases where there is a ‘political’ element. There is clearly a very strong need for some oversight on detentions to be set in place, and certainly there is need for the Special Rapporteur on Places of Detention at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to pay an urgent visit to Zimbabwe. As was seen above, there are already a large number of policemen and police stations that deserve investigation. However, this will not wholly resolve the problem of the high rates of torture reported in Zimbabwe, since a very high percentage of cases of torture take place outside of places of detention. As regards torture, it is evident that the data from the legal cases wholly corroborate the data from the monthly Political Violence reports of the Human Rights Forum. Torture is widespread, and, as seen in the analysis earlier, strongly associated with political events such as elections. Zimbabwe has not ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, despite Parliament’s recommendation that it do so, and there is an obvious need both to ratify this Convention and to ensure that this is mirrored in the domestic law of the country. Both the army and the police are implicated as serious violators of human rights, and, while these two groups may not be named as frequently as supporters of the government, it is extremely significant that they are involved in gross human rights violations such as torture. However, it is important not to lose sight of the other forms of human rights violation that are the subject of these legal cases: unlawful arrests and detention, assaults, and destruction of property are not trivial infringements of citizens’ rights, and, as was seen earlier in the analysis of the data from the monthly Political Violence reports of the Human Rights Forum, these infringements provide ways of intimidating any opposition. Here it should be repeated that gross human rights violations have been associated with explicitly political events such as elections or mass national actions, while the other types of 27