The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has called on western countries to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe, as they were hurting the poor.
"I would urge those countries that are currently applying sanctions on Zimbabwe to suspend them, at least until the conduct of the elections and related reforms are clear," she said during a visit to the country.
"Sanctions should be entirely suspended for people to entirely focus on economic issues that need to be addressed," she added.
Ms Pillay also urged the Zimbabwean government to pass reforms to avoid violence at the next elections.
Although some sanctions have already been lifted by the EU, several others, especially those targeting President Mugabe and over a hundred of his associates are still in place.
Sanctions were tightened by the EU after widespread violence during elections in 2008, when Mugabe supporters are thought to have killed and tortured hundreds of people.
Earlier this year, New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the EU to maintain sanctions on Mugabe’s government, unless Zimbabwe carries out concrete human rights and institutional reforms before this year’s elections.