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Unity Dow is a Motswana lawyer, author, human rights activist, Vice President of Botswana Congress Party and Member of Parliament for Kgatleng West since October 2024. She formerly served as a judge on the High Court of Botswana and in various Botswana government ministries. Born in the Bechuanaland Protectorate to a seamstress and a farmer, who insisted on their children obtaining an education, D…
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politics · Motswana politician, writer, and human rights activist (born 1959) · writer · judge · lawyer · politician · novelist · minister · member of parliament · board member · also Unity Dow, Justice Unity Dow, Dow
Born 23 April 1959 · Q4945158
43 published statements · 0 followers
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At least we are now six women MPs against 61 men. Three women won general elections, and an additional three were nominated by the President. This is progress, but not enough. People must recognise that women are capable and can contribute to meaningful change. However, we need more women in Parliament.
The suggestion that no one is allowed to differ with the president is a dangerous proposition and is totally at odds with what one expects in a democracy. I deny that my actions were in contravention of any rule or regulation,
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“At least we are now six women MPs against 61 men. Three women won general elections, and an additional three were nominated by the President. This is progress, but not enough. People must recognise that women are capable and can contribute to meaningful change. However, we need more women in Parliament.”
“The suggestion that no one is allowed to differ with the president is a dangerous proposition and is totally at odds with what one expects in a democracy. I deny that my actions were in contravention of any rule or regulation,”
“We habitually congratulate ourselves for being the beacon of democracy in Africa precisely because we cherish the right to think and the freedom to express ourselves, both of which are enshrined in the nation’s Constitution,”
“I think I’m a nomad at heart, I’m just always moving. I need to be challenged, intellectually challenged. My legacy is to challenge myself”
“As a minister you speak predominantly about your portfolio. But the backbench gives you the liberty to interrogate a wide variety of issues of national interest. The only limitation is my party position on a given subject”
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Career landmark: Foreign Minister of Botswana (2019–2020).
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Career landmark: Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development (2018–2018).
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Awarded OkayAfrica 100 Women (2017).
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Career landmark: Minister of Education and Skills Development (2016–2018).
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Career landmark: Minister of Education and Skills Development (2015–2016).
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Became the Minister of Education and Skills Development
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Justice Terrence Rannowane of the High Court ruled that refusing to register the group and allow them to assemble was in violation of the Constitution, Sections 3, 12, and 13, which grant the right to freedom of expressi
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When she was nominated by President Ian Khama as a special elected member of parliament
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Career landmark: member of the National Assembly of Botswana (2014).
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Dow served as legal counsel for LEGABIBO (Lesbians, Gays & Bisexuals of Botswana) in their case to register their organisation with the Department of Civil and National Registration and successfully received a ruling for
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Was elected as chair of the Executive Committee of the Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists
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Awarded Knight of the Legion of Honour (2010).
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Which collected works by well-known authors
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Studied at St Michael's College (2007).
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Dow served as a member of a special mission of the International Legal Assistance Consortium to assess the Rwandan judicial system and evaluate how the country could emerge from its past of conflict and rehabilitate its
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Was elected to serve on the executive committee of the International Commission of Jurists with six returning commissioners and three new members, including herself, Vojin Dimitrijević of Serbia and Raji Sourani of P
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As the presiding judge in the case of Roy Sesana and Others v
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Dow concluded that termination of services and forced relocation of the Basarwa represented an infringement to their constitutionally protected right to life
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Dow served as part of a United Nations mission to review the domestic application in Sierra Leone of international women's human rights with Ghanaian Charlotte Abaka, former chair of the Committee on the Elimination of D
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By the Basarwa people (sometimes referred to as Kalahari bushmen) concerning their removal from their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve
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Studied at Kenyon College (2001).
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Dow began publishing novels, typically focusing on social and legal issues and their impact on gender and power structures
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When Dow began publishing fiction, few Batswana writers had produced works which reached an audience outside Botswana
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Became the first woman to be appointed as a judge to the country's High Court
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Worked on a case involving child maintenance that resulted in an amendment to the laws for support, and in 1997 she presented a case on battered woman syndrome, considering these to be significant issues for women
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The Citizenship Act was amended to remove gender disparity in the acquisition of nationality in Botswana
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Detailing the legal proceedings of her case
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Was the plaintiff in the landmark legal case, Unity Dow v Attorney-General, which ended the gender discrimination in the nation's nationality laws that had previously not allowed children to derive nationality from t
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Her family might be forced to move or split up, Dow initiated Unity Dow v Attorney-General, alleging that the Citizenship Law was discriminatory and contravened her right to avoid demeaning and inhumane punishment
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For the case and during that time, she co-founded the Baobob Primary School in Gaborone and the AIDS Action Trust
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Helped establish the Metlhaetsile Women's Information Centre to promote education on women's rights under the law
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Dow filed suit in the High Court of Botswana to challenge the Nationality law of Botswana
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The firm's name was later changed to Dow Lesetedi and Company
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Dow entered private practice specialising in criminal law, opening the firm Dow Malakaila, the first all-woman law firm in the country
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From the University of Botswana and Swaziland
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And began working in the chambers of the Attorney-General of Botswana as a criminal prosecutor in Gaborone
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From the University of Botswana and Swaziland, though her studies were completed in Swaziland and University of Edinburgh, Scotland, as Botswana had no law school at the time
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Born 1959-04-23.
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