32 In Their Capacity as Human Rights Defenders: Women members have been arbitarily detained and the general safety has been compromised during electoral periods. Some of these incidents appear below: 19 February 2013: Shortly before the national elections police officers from Harare Central Police Station, who were armed with a search warrant, raided the ZESN offices in Belgravia. They broke two panels of a security perimeter wall and gained access to the building to conduct a search. A number of documents were seized, including partner agreements and some project-related documents. The police failed to gain access to the office of the ZESN Director as she was away on business and her office was locked. The police indicated that they would post a 24-hour police detail to man the premises to ensure that the office was not entered in their absence. No one was arrested during the search and no further action was taken after this. 19 July 2013: Police officers from Avondale Police Station arrived at the ZESN offices demanding to meet with senior management. Upon attendance by ZLHR lawyers, the police officers stated that they wished to take a statement from ZESN regarding concerns the organisation had raised in relation to the Special Vote during the national elections. Lawyers advised that ZESN was not able or willing to make a statement, and the police officers left. It appeared they were fishing for information that ZESN may have collected on irregularities that had been observed during the Special Vote procedure.   23 July 2013: A few days before the elections, four police officers from Marlborough Police Station interrupted a workshop for election observers that was being conducted by ZESN in Harare. The police demanded to sit in on the meeting. Despite explanations by the lawyers that the meeting was a private meeting and did not require notification of the regulating authority, the police were adamant that they wanted to hear what was being discussed. The workshop proceeded in the presence of the police officers. 3.3 Women and peace building Women HRDs have been involved in peace building initiatives throughout the various conflicts that Zimbabwean society has undergone. As peace champions, some women HRDs have led communities in projects that seek to eliminate incentives for violence. Projects that foster participatory democracy have also been undertaken to ensure that people are empowered to control the state’s excesses and demand accountability, thus promoting peace. In spite of the restrictive environment, women HRDs continue to take centre stage in directing the activities of several national and community based organisations that aim to facilitate participatory democracy and peace building in Zimbabwe. Women-led national organisations have collaborated on joint activities to advance the common objectives of peace building and state accountability. The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), and ZLHR collaborated in this manner in a constitution-monitoring project during the period of the Inclusive Government (2009-2013), which was known as ZZZICOMP [the acronym for ZPP, ZESN, and ZLHR Constitution Monitoring Project]. The three organisations had different areas of expertise to offer to each other in a mutually complementary manner: ZPP had a presence of monitors around the country; ZESN had the strength of many years of observation of national processes; while ZLHR offered the legal and technical expertise around constitution making.