ABSTRACT
In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2006,1 I made the following statement, which served as a framework for this chapter.
One does not need expertise in human rights to recognise that many policies of the government have subverted the essential principles of democracy and due process, deprived people of their economic resources and means of livelihood, and denied them their dignity. I have come to believe that these policies are integral to the political and economic systems through which the government rules, which has manipulated democratic process, undermined legitimate political opposition, used the State for the accumulation of private wealth. In short, I believe that the deliberate rejection of the concept of a State governed by the rule of law has been central to the ruling party’s hold on power.
