Athaliah Molokomme

Athaliah Molokomme (2011)

Athaliah Maoka Lesiba Molokomme , short Athaliah Molokomme (born December 4, 1959 in Francistown , Bechuanaland ) is a Botswana lawyer and women's rights activist. Between 2003 and 2005 she was a judge at the High Court of Botswana , and since 2005 Molokomme has been the South African country's first female attorney general .

Life

Youth and education

Athaliah Molokomme was born on December 4, 1959 in Francistown in what was then the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, the second of nine children. Her parents worked as teachers. Molokomme learned to read and write at the age of three and a half, which is why her parents sent her to elementary school very early. She attended various primary schools in Tchangati , Sebina and Mathangwane . Between 1970 and 1975 she attended St. Joseph College Kgale in a suburb of the capital Gaborone . She finished her school days with top marks.

After finishing school, she attended the University of Botswana until 1981, where she studied law. Molokomme then worked as a law lecturer at the institution and mainly dealt with family law , women's rights , labor law and customary law . A little later, she moved to the United States to do a master's degree in law from Yale Law School . Between 1988 and 1991 she did her PhD at the University of Leiden . Her doctoral thesis entitled "Children of the Fence: The maintenance of extra-marital children under law and practice in Botswana" dealt with the legal treatment of children out of wedlock in Botswana. In addition to her academic career, she taught law at her alma mater, the University of Botswana, until 1996.

Professional career

In 1998 Molokomme was appointed chairman of the newly established “Gender Unit” of the South African Development Community (SADC). The task of the gender unit was and is to check whether all policy documents and guidelines of the development community are gender-sensitive in terms of language and content. Molokomme held this task until 2003. In 2003 she was appointed a judge in the High Court , Botswana's highest court. She was the second woman after Unity Dow to ever be appointed to the position.

In the 2000s she was a regular Botswana representative at the Assembly of the Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court . Among other things, she was an active member of the Africa Group, which led and concluded the negotiations for the so-called "Kampala Amendments" of the ICJ Statute Review Conference in June 2010 (see amendments to the Rome Statute ).

In 2005 she was appointed Botswana's first female attorney general. She still holds this position today.

Sociopolitical engagement

In 1986, Molokomme and fellow campaigners founded Emang Basadi ( Setswana for "Stand up, women!"), A member-based non-governmental organization that campaigns for women's rights in Botswana. In 1988 she was also involved in founding Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), a research group that also advocates women's rights in southern Africa. She is also a member of the Justice Leadership Group.

Private

Athaliah Molokomme married Dr. Jaap Arntzen and has two children.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Elizabeth Macharia-Mokobi: Molokomme, Athaliah Maoka Lesiba . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . 1st edition. tape 6 . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 253 .
2. ^ Plenary panel discussion on complementarity. (PDF) In: Assembly of States Parties: Fourteenth session. SECRETARIAT OF THE ASSEMBLY OF STATES PARTIES, November 19, 2015, accessed October 31, 2016 .