Davidson and Purohit: The Zimbabwean Human Rights Crisis: A Collaborative Approach to International Advocacy YALE HUMAN RIGHTS & DEVELOPMENT L.J. [Vol. 7 years, in part due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Food shortages required the import of up to 1.3 million metric tons of maize in 2003 to 2004 to prevent 21 mass starvation. The acute food shortage and the control of distribution of aid supplies by the government and its agents have a particularly detrimental effect on the large number of displaced farm workers (especially those of foreign descent), women, the elderly, orphaned children, and people living with HIV/AIDS. In addition, as noted above, the government's fast-track land reform program has resulted in the destruction of the infrastructure of social services in many rural areas, including healthcare and basic education. IV. RESTRICTIONS ON HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCACY Rigorous documentation of human rights violations is the most basic element of human rights advocacy, necessary to ensure the dissemination of accurate information and the building of legal cases, and to create pressure for action domestically and internationally. In Zimbabwe, such documentation is significantly hampered by the efforts of the authorities, which in addition to using threats, violence, and intimidation against those seeking to record human rights abuses, also makes use of new legislation that significantly restricts the scope for criticism of state institutions and seeks to prevent civil society and political organizing. The Public Order and Security Act (POSA), a draconian law adopted in January 2002 to replace the Rhodesian Law and Order Maintenance Act, is used routinely by the Zimbabwean police to arrest and detain members of the opposition and others perceived as supportive of them, such as civil society activists. The law is also used to prevent and disrupt peaceful meetings, as it requires police permission to hold any kind of public gathering. The provisions of POSA are themselves contrary to constitutional provisions on freedom of expression, association, and 22 assembly, as well as being in violation of international human rights law. Often, individuals are arrested and detained for several hours, ostensibly under the authority of POSA. However, in many such cases, no charges are ever brought and the detention is used simply as a means of intimidation. In others, baseless charges are filed, and cases are initiated but never brought to trial, again as a method of harassment and intimidation. 23 21 See U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev., Famine Early Warning Network, Monthly Food Security Update (Feb. 27, 2003) at http:/ /www.reliefwebint/w/rwb.nsf/6686f45896fl5dbc852567ae0530132/0e8O3ddeclb4blf b49256cf60008c703?OpenDocument 22 See Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Background Statement on the Public Orderand Security Bill Before the Zimbabwean Parliament(Dec. 19, 2001) at http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/defenders/hrd-zimbabwe/hrd-zim-6.htm. 23 For example, among those who have been arrested, detained and/or charged on the basis of POSA are the president and secretary of the Zimbabwe Law Society, a range of trade union leaders, a group of 350 women National Constitutional Assembly members, and demonstrators at World Cup cricket matches being played in Zimbabwe. Often those arrested Published by Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository, 2004 9