8 If a regulating authority for any area believes on reasonable grounds that the powers conferred by sections twenty-five and twenty-six will not be sufficient to prevent public disorder being occasioned by the holding of public demonstrations or any class thereof in the area or any part thereof, he may issue an order prohibiting, for a specified period not exceeding one month, the holding of all public demonstrations or any class of public demonstrations in the area or part thereof concerned. Amnesty International is concerned that the detention of women human rights defenders has not been carried out in accordance with due process of law. Women human rights defenders have been ill-treated while in police custody after engaging in, or attempting to engage in, peaceful protest. They are often held in overcrowded cells for periods ranging from a couple of hours to several days before being taken to court or released. Police often deny human rights defenders access to lawyers and to food. In addition, human rights defenders who are injured as a result of police beatings during arrest and/or while in custody, are also denied access to medical care. These human rights violations have gender specific manifestations and a gender specific impact on women human rights defenders. Amnesty International has documented several cases of police brutality during arrest and detention of women human rights defenders. Case study Women and baby injured during peaceful protest On 29 November 2006, police in Bulawayo used excessive force to disperse over 200 WOZA members participating in a peaceful protest outside government offices at Muhlahlandlela building, despite the fact that the protesters had all sat down ready to be arrested.(43) About 30 police officers in riot gear used excessive force to arrest and disperse the protesters, resulting in some 25 of them being seriously injured and later hospitalized. Among the injured were a woman and a baby, both of whom suffered broken legs. Around 36 protesters, including six mothers with small babies, were arrested and detained at Bulawayo Central police station. Detention of pregnant women and mothers with small children Amnesty International has documented several cases where, as well as the lives or health of women human rights defenders being put at risk during detention in police custody, the lives and health of their small children were also endangered. A number of women human rights defenders from WOZA sometimes take their small babies with them to marches. The women told Amnesty International that most of them have no one else to leave the babies with. In most instances the babies are still breastfeeding and cannot be separated from their mothers for prolonged periods. Amnesty International notes that these women tend to be single mothers living on their own. Although most women human rights defenders who are arrested with babies are released earlier than women without children, and do not spend nights in police cells, some have not been so fortunate. Amnesty International has documented cases where the police subjected mothers and babies to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and at times even appeared to justify such treatment. Case studies Women with babies detained overnight On 29 November 2006 six mothers with babies were arrested and detained overnight at various police stations in Bulawayo after having spent the whole day at Bulawayo Central police station in the rain, in a fenced area in an open-air courtyard. When the WOZA leaders, Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, who were also in detention, objected to the ill-treatment of the women, particularly the mothers with babies, police reportedly told them that "they deserved the treatment".(44) Later that evening the police transferred the detainees to several police stations in Bulawayo. The mothers with babies were not released until 30 November. Bulawayo woman detained with baby Rumbidzai, a 26-year-old WOZA member, was one of the mothers with babies arrested on 29 November. At the time, her baby was nine months old. Police took away her bag with nappies and would not allow her to