ZIMBABWE: FROM IMPUNITY TO ACCOUNTABILITY deliberately side-stepped since Independence. To its credit the MDC has publicly committed itself to bringing the country into the mainstream of international law, but it will need to be monitored to make sure that it does, and that all relevant domestic laws are amended accordingly. Local NGOs with a special legal focus have already done a lot of groundwork in this field, but the time is ripe for them to now consider drawing up a coherent program of proposals for human rights legislation, reflecting all of civil society’s demands. Even where treaties have been entered into there are optional protocols which have not; furthermore, reporting and monitoring obligations with which the Government ought to comply arising from international conventions have more often than not been neglected, distorted or dealt with years too late – not surprisingly, given Zanu-PF’s propensity, even before the present crisis, to pay lip-service to human rights. It is one of the ironies of the Mugabe regime that the movement which fought to replace the pariah entity that was UDI Rhodesia, with an independent state inside the community of nations, has so successfully taken the country back to the international isolation which the Smith regime so richly deserved. Once democracy is established, there will be an opportunity and a moral responsibility for all the broken links to be mended as soon as possible, and civil society will have a crucial role to play in helping steer a new Government’s efforts towards human rights-friendly law reform. While it will entail more than incorporating important international law norms into domestic law, this will nevertheless be of special significance to all those concerned with victims of human rights violations. 9. REPARATION The symposium showed that a wide range of organizations could speak with one voice, and opportunities must be sought for this approach to be repeated and intensified. In finding ways to do this, the following components of a fully comprehensive reparation programme can be taken beyond the monitoring and the documenting of violations and the rendering of immediate 32