Rumbidzai Dube
Zimbabwe

Rumbidzai Dube is a human rights defender and lawyer from Zimbabwe, with more than six years’ experience in legal research and advocacy work. Currently, Rumbidzai is a Legal Researcher at the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), a local NGO in Zimbabwe where she is involved in analyzing, critiquing, and contributing towards the transformation of public policy, legislation, and state institutions respectively. She is a published researcher whose most notable contribution has been a gendered perspective on the relationship between political freedoms and democracy in the IDASA Democracy Index, a measure of Zimbabwe’s democracy under the transitional government (2008-2013). Her work enables her to engage from the grassroots level, spending time in communities conducting research and public education, to high-level political forums. She is involved in numerous advocacy campaigns with politicians and policy makers in Zimbabwe, regionally with the African Union and globally with UN treaty bodies such as the CEDAW Committee and the Human Rights Council. Rumbidzai holds a Master’s Degree in Law (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa) from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and an Honours Degree in Law from the University of Zimbabwe. Upon her return, Rumbidzai will continue her efforts at legal education through her blog as well as launching her upcoming website, a project that will take law to the streets by simplifying the law in a way the layman can relate to. She will also continue her research work, holding state and government institutions accountable.