Foreword This report is the product of a great deal of collaborative work involving a consolidation of major reports and statements made throughout 2013 by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (“ZLHR”), VERITAS Trust, Media Monitoring Project for Zimbabwe (“MMPZ”) Zimbabwe Peace Project (“ZPP”), and the Research and Advocacy Unit (“RAU”). The overall aim of this report is to give you both a broad policy picture and a detailed inventory of events relating to human rights, rule of law and democracy that took place in Zimbabwe during 2013. The report mainly covers those themes, which, in the Editor’s view and also given limited resources, were the most relevant during the year. These include rights relating to respect for the integrity of the person, respect for civil liberties, including freedom of speech and press, freedom of association and assembly and respect for political rights; elections and political participation. Zimbabwe’s performance on each of the human rights categories, up to 31 July will be benchmarked against the Global Political Agreement (“GPA”), which was incorporated under the old constitution under amendment 19 and thereafter under the new constitution, which substantially incorporates most of the rights, which the GPA sought to promote and protect. We hope you will find this report as being both informative and useful to your work, the work of human rights organisations but that above all it serves as a genuine and robust record of what transpired during a year of such great consequence in respect of the areas covered. However, we always want to seek ways to improve which is only made possible through your generous feedback, suggestions and continuous dialogue. On behalf of the Forum and all its members whose work constitute the basis of this report, I would like to thank our International Liaison office team for compiling this report as well as Judit Getu and Lindani Chirambadare for painstakingly proof reading the report. Abel Chikomo, Executive Director