Country / Where did you grow up:
Gaborone, Botswana
Academic qualifications:
LLB University of Botswana, Botswana
Experience:
I am a civil society attorney, currently operating Nchunga and associates, a human rights law firm in Botswana. My background is in strategic litigation and advocacy at community, national and international level. I have worked with Domestic Violence clinics in Botswana, on projects aimed at availing justice to women in rural communities. In 2014, as a visiting scholar, I worked at the Urban Morgan Institute, in Cincinnati, in a domestic violence clinic, drafting petitions for protection orders. Between 2012 and 2016, I litigated in the LEGABIBO registration case. From 2015 to 2017, in a team facilitated by the Southern African Litigation Center (SALC), I successfully worked on the two landmark change of sex marker case for 2 transgender persons in Botswana. In 2016, I started working for Minority Rights Groups (MRG) on a project for the recognition of tribal minorities. This work ensured that I worked in communities with thematic areas on women and children; as well as internationally. Through the MRG project, submissions were made to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on the state of tribal minorities in Botswana. In 2018, and through the MRG project, I assisted the UNDP in facilitating and mapping the visit of the Special Rapporteur on Minority and Indigenous Rights (SRMI). My work, beyond litigation and advocacy, has included consultancies. In 2018, I worked on a baseline assessment for programs to reduce human rights barriers to access, uptake and retention of HIV services. This was a country-wide assessment, for Global Fund grant-making purposes, and was done through the University of KwaZulu Natal. In 2019, I started working on a UNDP project for the development of curriculum for capacity building of tribal leaders in responding to gender-based violence. I am a 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow, under the Public Management Track, and placed with the University of Syracuse at the Maxwell College.
Academic fields of interest:
Multidisciplinary approaches to Human Rights with a focus on women in rural communities, Women's Rights, Adolescent Sexuality, and Gender-Based Violence.
Position prior to the programme:
Country Legal Consultant (Minority Rights Group International), Partner (Nchunga and associates), Columnist (Mmegi Monitor)
