A/HRC/44/50/Add.3 reality is that dissenting voices have played a meaningful contribution in the country’s trajectory in many ways, including during the landmark Constitutional Commission Referendum of 2000, in which the pro-opposition parties’ ‘NO’ Vote triumphed over the ‘Yes’ Vote favoured by the ruling party. This demonstrates that the playing field has always been level and the democratic space has always been open to allow citizens to exercise their rights to freedom of assembly and association. 19. An assertion by the Special Rapporteur that ‘…through constitutional amendments, the country was transformed from a parliamentary democracy to a presidential autocracy, where little attention to the rule of law was paid', is not factual and unwarrantedly damaging. Where such an assertion is made in a mission report of this magnitude, one would ordinarily expect an evidence based demonstration to follow by giving concrete examples. 20. In fact, the nineteen amendments to the Constitution of Zimbabwe prior to the current 2013 Constitution were all executed in terms of the laid down procedures of amending the Constitution, which usually require a higher threshold of Parliamentary approvals. Land mark amendments were witnessed during the period in question, including the expansion of representative democracy by reintroducing the upper house of Parliament in 2005 1, entrenching the non-reversibility of land reform2 and establishment of human rights institutions such as the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC)3. B. Normative and institutional framework 21. The Special Rapporteur misrepresented facts when he highlighted that Zimbabwe is only compliant with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanisms. The Government of Zimbabwe is actively fulfilling its reporting obligations in respect of some of the core international and regional human rights treaties, as shown in Table 1 below: Table 1: Core International Human Rights Treaties to which Zimbabwe is party 1 2 3 6 Treaty Status Reservations/ Derogations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Ratified 13 May 1991 None International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Ratified 13 May 1991 None International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Ratified 10 April 1997 None Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Ratified 13 May 1991 None Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Ratified 8 March 1990 None Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No. 17 of 2005. Ibid. Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No. 19 of 2009.