31 Mar Transitional Justice in Pre-Transitional Times: Are there any lessons for Zimbabwe?
Zimbabwe is a country that has been the subject of sustained impunity for gross human rights violations, from the pre-colonial period to present. Acts of gross human rights violations that include extra-judicial killings, murders, torture displacements, enforced starvation, and detentions, amongst other human rights violations have been committed with impunity. This has raised demands for accountability through transitional justice processes and mechanisms. Generally, transitional justice usually occurs following some kind of political change, with a country moving from a situation characterised by gross human rights violations into a democratic dispensation. In principle, significant political change must occur first in order to allow a country to address the violations of the previous political dispensation. However, for many countries as demonstrated in this study such a political transition may be difficult or even impossible, and yet there may be demand for justice from the victims of gross human rights violations as is the case with Zimbabwe.
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