PROJECTS CARRIED OUT IN 2017 This section highlights the work and milestones of the Forum through the Secretariat. PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION The Forum, through the PIU, litigates on behalf of the victims of human rights violations. The aim of impact litigation is to challenge impunity, ensure greater accountability and influence behavioural change in the perpetrators as well as contributing to policy reform. The Forum has forced institutions to climb down and admit to their wrongs and given thousands of victims a sense of justice and dignity Tribunal in Case No. SADC (T) 05/2008 (Gondo and 8 others vs. the Government of Zimbabwe). The Forum sued the Government of Zimbabwe for failing to comply with the High Court rulings in favour of victims of organized violence and torture. Litigation seeks to achieve the following specific objectives: Ÿ To assert the rights of the most vulnerable members of the society who are often unable to stand up against the injustices on their own. Ÿ To combat impunity and ensure accountability. The Forum has also litigated against the government of Zimbabwe at the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). In all these cases, the Forum has broken the myth that perpetrators of human rights violations are untouchable. The Forum has forced institutions to climb down and admit to their wrongs and given thousands of victims a sense of justice and dignity. The Forum has restored belief in justice even in the most unjust conditions. The Forum has reached-out to marginalized communities through mobile legal clinics, pushed for reform of institutions Over the past two decades, the Forum has stood side by side with over 16 000 victims of organized violence and torture, processed over 7 000 civil matters in the local courts, won over US$160 000 as compensation for victims. The Forum has litigated against ordinary individual perpetrators, the police, the army, the Ministers of Home Affairs, Defence, state security and against anyone who has been implicated in human rights violations. Beyond the borders, The Forum has litigated at the now defunct SADC 10 ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS NGO FORUM ANNUAL REPORT 2017