Zimbabwe Human Rights Association The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (Zimrights), which was established in 1992, submits regular reports to the Forum from its head office, but has struggled to ensure reports are gathered from its five regional offices. There is no central archive of records, which includes casework related to welfare and other paralegal work, civic education and so on. In terms of record keeping, no specific focus has been given to issues of organised violence and torture undertaken by Zimrights. Despite this, Zimrights’ records remain a potentially important and powerful source of primary data on a spectrum of human rights violations. Zimbabwe Development Community Trust The Zimbabwe Development Community Trust is a national network that provides assistance and relief to victims of political violence and socio-economic displacement. Following the 2002 Presidential elections, ZCDT ran 12 centres across the country. It is a regular contributor to the Forum’s monthly report and interacts closely with other NGOs, such as the Amani Trust and ZLHR in terms of referrals for medical or legal assistance. The ZCDT has developed a database providing details on displaced commercial farm workers. The ZCDT provides the Forum with details of cases brought to its attention on a monthly basis. Food Security Network The Food Security Network (Fosnet) is a network of 24 civil society organisations from around Zimbabwe. The network began monitoring food security in Zimbabwe in July 2002, and provides monthly reports based on information pooled from most districts around the country. In 2004, the monitoring process was widened to cover other social and economic issues (i.e. health, education) and quarterly reports are now also produced with specific socio-economic thematic foci. These monthly and quarterly reports are generated from individual protocol reports that are compiled by network member organisations at ward and district level. These reports provide considerable opportunity for examining the interface between reported civil and political violations and particular socio-economic conditions on the ground. Developing a relational database – a practical option? The rationale for creating a relational database was clearly set out at the Johannesburg Symposium. Establishing an information management system that can collate a variety of existing data sources dealing with human rights violations would enable human rights researchers to make systematic, comparative analyses of patterns and trends of violations in time, space and social structure. This, in turn, would improve civil society’s opportunities to ensure greater accountability for past violations, which in turn would help to promote the necessary institutional transformation and legislative framework that would avert a repeat of these abuses. The overall list of possible data sources in Zimbabwe provides for considerable database opportunities. The character and quality of the data varies enormously, as well as the way it is coded and captured. Most of the electronic databases are not compatible and any attempts to create some sort of synergy between these databases would require a re-evaluation of the source material. While there is a lot of very useful data, it is evident that most would not be directly relevant to the creation of a new relational database. In this regard, it would be necessary to focus initially on those organisations that have primary data records, which include statements, narratives and substantive detail on the violations, perpetrated (i.e. type of violation, location of violation, date of violation, detail on victims and perpetrators, and where possible detail on context, witnesses, etc.). 34