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Yali Profile : Human Rights defender seeks initiatives to strengthen rule of law

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Fresh from winning a landmark constitutional court case that removed barriers for women to move freely at night, David Tinashe Hofisi has no regrets working to protect the rights of human rights defenders and the public in Zimbabwe.

Fresh from winning a landmark constitutional court case that removed barriers for women to move freely at night, David Tinashe Hofisi has no regrets working to protect the rights of human rights defenders and the public in Zimbabwe.

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He is traveling to the United States of America to participate in the second year of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for young African Leaders.

David will spend six weeks at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville before travelling for a three day summit in Washington where he and 499 fellows from other African countries will meet President Obama. At the university David seeks to “immerse myself in the local culture, network with people and study the role the founding fathers had on a variety of foundational democratic and constitutional principles.” David is a lawyer and human rights defender with the Lawyers for Human Rights, an independent nongovernmental organization working to promote and protect human rights in Zimbabwe. He oversees the constitutional litigation portfolio as well as the constitutional-monitoring project. In his work, he has handled numerous civil and criminal cases on behalf of human rights defenders and the general public. His legal endeavours have seen him make various constitutional-monitoring presentations before statutory bodies and students at various universities. At the 8th Viterbo Seminar Global Administrative Law, David co-presented a paper he had co-authored titled ““The Ease of Doing Business and Land Grabbling: Critique of the Investing- Across-Borders Indicators.”

David has also worked with the International Commission of Jurists and completed a scholarship on Land Investment Deals and the Role of Private Law with the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT).

Upon his return from the fellowship, David plans “to continue to work on strengthening the rule of law in Zimbabwe through litigation, lobby and advocacy.” More specifically, he hopes to formulate mentoring programmes and emerge with concrete ideas for new initiatives aimed at strengthening the rule of law.

David is the holder of a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) Degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a Masters’ Degree in Rule of Law for Development from the Rome Centre of Loyola University (Chicago).