THE inclusive government must enact laws that make torture a criminal and cruel offence that cannot be pardoned, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has said.

Marking the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Zimrights director Okay Machisa said government should sign, ratify and domesticate the Charter Against Torture (Cat).

He said this should be part of the efforts aimed at taking transitional justice to the people.

All torture bases reportedly being reactivated in some rural areas must be abolished.

"There is need to scrupulously investigate all reported cases of torture and bring the perpetrators to account," Machisa said.

"Victims of torture should be rehabilitated, receive adequate, effective, prompt and proportional compensation to the gravity of the violation as recommended in the 2002 African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) between the government of Zimbabwe and the forum and various other domestic court orders which have been ignored by the Zimbabwean government."

The forum said as the world remembers torture victims in Zimbabwe and, across the globe, it is also important to revisit the findings it made last year on torture and its link with the outcome of last year's two elections held in the country.

The forum recommended that the government should guarantee non-repetition of the acts through a systematic enforcement of the prohibition of torture and elimination of impunity for all perpetrators.

Last year's elections were marked by widespread state-sponsored politically motivated violence which claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands others. Several cases of violence mostly attributed to state security agents and Zanu PF militia members showed evidence of systematic disappearances, abductions, torture, summary executions and extra judicial killings, the forum said.

Among other victims were the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) director Jestina Mukoko and several other civic society and MDC activists. At Friday's commemorations, the forum took the chance to launch a report entitled "Taking Transitional Justice To The People Outreach Report", based on findings it made in four of the 10 provinces in the country.

In the report those interviewed noted the need for a formal and comprehensive process of national healing, reconciliation and for transitional justice to begin. It also said that the participants suggested that for transitional justice to be effective, the local communities need to be involved and take ownership of the process.

"The participants also suggested that there should be a decentralisation and restructuring of judicial processes in the event of massive prosecutions of many offenders," read part of the report.

"They also noted the capacity of Zimbabwe's judicial system and its past record in dealing with political cases as needing innovative and immediate reforms and decentralisation, particularly of the court system in order to deal expeditiously and conclusively with cases of violence."

They suggested the need for victim-friendly processes that would be accessible to all victims. The forum said those interviewed also recommended that for effective transitional justice to take place, people of integrity should constitute a body that might be created to deal with the issues.

The forum's report comes just as Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights reported that at least 13 MDC activists from Masvingo were recently granted orders for compensation for the loss of their property during last year's election violence.