Unity Dow

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Unity Dow (2011)

Unity Dow (* 23. April 1959 in Mochudi , Bechuanaland ; born as Unity Diswai ) is a Botswana politician ( Botswana Democratic Party ), lawyer, human rights activist and writer. She was the first female judge in her country at the High Court and headed various ministries from 2015, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2018.

Life

Origin and studies

Unity Dow was born in a rural area. Her parents were Moses Phiri Diswai and the seamstress Ellen Diswai. She studied at the University of Botswana and Swaziland (UBS), where she earned a Bachelor of Law in 1983 . In the meantime, she had studied at the University of Edinburgh for two years .

Career as a lawyer

She was also involved in founding Botswana's first women-only law practice, Malakaila , in 1986 , which existed until 1988; then she headed the law firm Dow, Lesetedi and Company until 1991 . From 1988 to 1991 Dow also worked as a researcher for Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), which she co-founded .

In 1991 she was one of the co-founders of the Baobab Primary School in the capital Gaborone . She co-founded the AIDS Action Trust , the first AIDS-specific non-governmental organization in Botswana.

In a legal dispute with the state that ran from 1991 to 1995, she achieved that citizenship in Botswana was not only determined by the origin of the father, but also, under certain conditions, of the mother. It was about her second and third child, who were born after marrying the American Peter Nathan Dow and would not have received Botswana citizenship according to the current legal situation. The case came to be known as the Citizenship Case . She led other cases involving children's and women's rights ( Child Maintenance Case , 1996–1997, and Battered Women Syndrome Case , 1997).

Dow became the first female High Court judge in Botswana in 1997. In 2006 she was one of the three judges who strengthened the land rights of the San in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve case in their ancestral territory in the Kalahari . In 2009 she left the High Court.

In the winter semester of 2009, Dow was visiting professor at the School of Law at Columbia University in New York . In 2010 she founded the Dow & Associates law practice in Botswana.

In 2004 Dow was a member of the International Commission of Jurists for the first time . In 2009 she was re-elected to this position, in 2006 she was also elected to its Executive Committee and in 2008 she was also re-elected. From 2011 to June 2012 she was Chair of the Executive Committee. As of July 6, 2012, she was part of a group of three lawyers commissioned by the United Nations to investigate the influence of Israeli settlements on the Palestinian population in the West Bank .

On November 14, 2014, she represented the Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO) against the Republic of Botswana in court and obtained official recognition for LEGABIBO as an organization; In 2016, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision.

Career as a politician

In 2013, Dow turned to politics. In the 2014 election she did not succeed in winning the Mochudi constituency . On October 28, 2014, then-President Ian Khama proposed her as an appointed member of the National Assembly ; the parliament agreed shortly afterwards. She is a member of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party . Dow became Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development and took over as Minister in March. Under the newly elected President Mokgweetsi Masisi , she became Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development on April 1, 2018 ; on June 20, 2018, she became Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation. In 2019 she was again admitted to parliament on the proposal of the President, so that she could keep her ministerial office.

Writing activity

Dow wrote five fiction books that deal primarily with the conflict between western and traditional values, the gender issue and poverty. The works are written in English. In the novel Far and Beyon ' AIDS is in the foreground, as is in her work Saturday is for Funerals . Her novel The Screaming of the Innocent was published in German under the title Die Beichte by Verlag Goldmann.

family

Dow is married with three children.

Others

In 2010, Dow founded the Hills of Music International Music, Art, Food and Dress Festival.

Literary works

  • Far and Beyon '. , Longman Botswana, 2000.
  • The Screaming of the Innocent. Spinifex 2002. (German: Die Beichte . Goldmann 2003)
  • Juggling Truths. Spinifex, 2003.
  • The Heavens May Fall. Double Storey, 2006.
  • Saturday is for funerals. Harvard Press, 2010.

Honors

Web links

Commons : Unity Dow  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Entry at marabout.de, accessed on February 13, 2019
  2. ↑ a b Faces of Africa: The Unity Dow story. africa.cgtn.com, July 17, 2017, accessed February 13, 2019
  3. ↑ a b c keto Segwai: The departure of a nonconformist. mmegi.bw of November 14, 2008 (English), accessed on February 12, 2019
  4. ↑ a b Description of the case at heinonline.org (English), accessed on February 12, 2019
  5. ↑ Entry at africansuccess.org (English), accessed on February 12, 2019
  6. ^ David Beresford: Judge Unity Dow on Botswana's most expensive trial. theguardian.com dated December 17, 2006, accessed February 12, 2019
  7. ^ Report of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the occupied Palestinean Territory, including East Jerusalem. ohchr.org (English; PDF), accessed on February 13, 2019
  8. ↑ Katiego K Kol-Kas: LGBT group to register with Botswana government. washingtonblade.com, January 30, 2016, accessed February 13, 2019
  9. ↑ Mpho Mokwape: Govt ordered to Recognize LEGABIBO. mmegi.bw of March 17, 2016 (English), accessed on February 13, 2019
  10. ^ The Hills of Music. (English), accessed on February 13, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Dow, Unity
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Diswai, Unity (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Botswana Democratic Party politician, judge, writer and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Mochudi , Bechuanaland