Alice Bahumi Mogwe (born 14 February 1961) is a

Motswana Motswana ( Batswana; also spelled MoTswana, pl. BaTswana) may refer to: * A member of the Tswana people, an ethnic group in southern Africa * A citizen of Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Sout ...

activist and lawyer. She is the founder and director of the human rights organization

Ditshwanelo Ditshwanelo (Setswana for "Rights"), or the Botswana Centre for Human Rights, is a human rights organisation founded in 1993 in Botswana. It aims to improve human rights through education and governance. The group has campaigned against capital pu ...

. In 2019, she was elected to a three-year term as president of the

International Federation for Human Rights The International Federation for Human Rights (; FIDH) is a non-governmental federation for human rights organizations. Founded in 1922, FIDH is the third oldest international human rights organization worldwide after Anti-Slavery International ...

, and she was reelected in 2022. Mogwe's work focuses on protecting political freedoms, abolishing the death penalty, and ensuring rights for minorities, women, children, LGBTQ people, domestic workers, and refugees and other migrants.

Early life and education

Alice Mogwe was born in 1961 in

Molepolole Molepolole is a large village in Kweneng District, Botswana. The people who reside in Molepolole are called Bakwena, who are one of the eight major tribes in Botswana. The Bakwena Kgosi (Chief), Sebele I was among the three chiefs who went to E ...

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. She began university in South Africa during apartheid at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1982 and then a

bachelor of laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 1985, she moved to England to obtain a

master of laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

from the

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

in 1990.

Career

After returning to Botswana, Mogwe began her career as a human rights lawyer, becoming a founding member of the organization Women and Law in Southern Africa. In 1993, she established the human rights organization

, which she has continued to direct. The organization, also known as the Botswana Centre for Human Rights, provides legal aid and otherwise advocates for human rights causes. Her human rights work with Ditshwanelo included supporting the rights of indigenous groups in Botswana such as the

Basarwa The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region. They are thought to have diverged from other humans 100,000 to 200 ...

. She is also known for having organized legal fights against death penalty cases and against the deportation of refugees. Mogwe founded and worked with various other civil society organizations in Botswana, including the Domestic Workers’ Foundation and the Botswana Labor Migrants Association. She has also worked as an election observer in Botswana and as co-chair of Tanzania Elections Watch. A practicing

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

, she is a member of the Anglican Peace and Justice Network. Early in her career, she served as a delegate for the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...

. In 2019, Mogwe was elected president of the

(FIDH), a major nongovernmental human rights federation and watchdog group. She was the first woman from Sub-Saharan Africa to lead the organization. After her first three-year term, she was reelected in 2022. She had previously served as deputy secretary-general, then secretary-general of the organization. Mogwe has also served two terms on the board of

International Service for Human Rights The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) is an independent, non-profit organization with offices in Geneva and New York which promotes and protects human rights by supporting human rights defenders, strengthening human rights standards ...

Awards and recognition

*FES Human Rights Award 2021 * Human Rights Prize of the Commission Nationale Consultative des Droits de l’Homme (CNCDH) (2012) * David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award (2010) * Recognition of Contribution as a Vanguard Women's Leader of Botswana (2005) * Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Merite awarded by the Government of the Republic of France (2005) * Chevalier, French

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

(2024)

Publications

* Mogwe, A. (1994). Human Rights in Botswana: Feminism, Oppression, and “Integration”. ''Alternatives'', ''19''(2), 189-193. * Mogwe, A. L. I. C. E., & Melville, I. N. G. R. I. D. (2012). Human dignity and democracy. ''A Fine Balance: Assessing the Quality of Governance in Botswana'', 83-99. * Mogwe, A. (1992). Botswana: Abortion ‘debate’dynamics. ''Agenda'', ''8''(12), 41-43.

External links

Alice Mogwe
at

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mogwe, Alice 1961 births Botswana human rights activists Botswana women activists Women lawyers Botswana Anglicans University of Cape Town alumni Alumni of the University of Kent Living people Kweneng District Knights of the Legion of Honour