Beatrice Mtetwa is a
Swazi Swazi may refer to:
* Swazi people, a people of southeastern Africa
* Swazi language
* Eswatini
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked coun ...
was born 1957 and naturalised
Zimbabwean
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Moza ...
lawyer who has been internationally recognized for her defense of journalists and press freedom. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' described her in 2008 as "Zimbabwe's top human rights lawyer".
Legal practice
Mtetwa received her LLB from the
University of Botswana and Swaziland in 1981 and spent the next two years working as a prosecuting attorney in
Swaziland
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
.
In 1983, she moved to Zimbabwe, where she continued working as a prosecutor until 1989.
That year, she went into private practice, and soon began specializing in
human rights law
International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, ag ...
.
In one of her more notable cases, she successfully challenged a section of Zimbabwe's Private Voluntary Organizations Act which allowed a government minister the authority to dissolve or replace the board members of
non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s.
She also challenged the results of 37 districts in the
2000 parliamentary elections.
In a
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
documentary, Mtetwa described her motives for her activism as "not because there is any glory or cash to it and not because I'm trying to antagonize the government... I'm doing it because it's a job that's got to be done".
Mtetwa is particularly noted for her defense of arrested journalists, both local and international.
In 2003, for example, she won a court order preventing the deportation of ''
Guardian
Guardian usually refers to:
* Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another
* ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper
(The) Guardian(s) may also refer to:
Places
* Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...
'' reporter
Andrew Meldrum
Andrew Meldrum (born 1951) is an American journalist who has concentrated on Africa and human rights. He worked in Zimbabwe for 23 years. Currently Meldrum is Africa News Editor for The Associated Press, working in Johannesburg, South Africa. He w ...
, presenting it to security officials at
Harare International Airport
Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport , (known colloquially as "RGM", or Mugabe Airport) formerly known as the ''Harare International Airport'', is an international airport in Harare, Zimbabwe. It is the largest airport in the country and ...
only minutes before Meldrum's plane was scheduled to depart. She also won acquittals for detained reporters
Toby Harnden
Toby is a popular, usually male, name in many English speaking countries. The name is from the Middle English vernacular form of Tobias. Tobias itself is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew טוביה ''Toviah'', which translates to ''Good i ...
and
Julian Simmonds
Julian Graham John Simmonds (born 29 August 1985) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives for one term from the 2019 federal election, representing the Division of Ryan in Queensland, until his defeat a ...
from London's ''
Sunday Telegraph
''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings.
It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...
'', who had been arrested during coverage of
the April parliamentary election on charges of working without government accreditation.
In April 2008, she secured the release of ''New York Times'' reporter
Barry Bearak
Barry Leon Bearak (born August 31, 1949, in Chicago) is an American journalist and educator who has worked as a reporter and correspondent for ''The Miami Herald'', the ''Los Angeles Times'', and ''The New York Times''. He taught journalism as a ...
, who had been imprisoned on similar charges.
She also defended many local journalists arrested in the run-up to the
2008 presidential election.
Mtetwa is also a director who sits on Econet board .
Mtetwa and Tawanda Nyambirai founded Mtetwa & Nyambirai Legal Practitioners in 2006 and it has established itself over the past decade as one of Zimbabwe's leading law firms. Mtetwa & Nyambirai's history is punctuated by landmark cases in multiple areas of the law. With
Econet Wireless
Econet, officially known as Econet Global Ltd, is a diversified telecommunications group with operations and investments in Africa, Europe, South America and the East Asia Pacific Rim, offering products and services in the core areas of mobile a ...
’s the largest telecommunications company in Zimbabwe being the firms most notable clients, the Econet name appears on many of those landmark cases. These include cases such as Econet Wireless v Trustco Mobile, and Derdale v Econet Wireless which is now the seminal case on the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court under the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Mtetwa's firm has been involved with multiple high-profile human rights cases. Notably, we were instrumental in the recovery of abducted activist Jestina Mukoko — who was held incommunicado and tortured for nearly a month in 2008. Mtetwa subsequently handled a string of related legal cases that followed, including securing a stay of prosecution for Ms Mukoko and suing her abductors for damages in their personal capacity. Over the years, the Mtetwa and Nyambirai has grown into a full service law firm with the capacity to handle matters relating to all aspects of Zimbabwean law.
Imprisonment, Assaults and Threats
In 2003, Mtetwa was arrested on allegations of
drunk driving
Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash.
In the United States, alcohol is invo ...
. At the police station, she was reportedly beaten and choked before being released three hours later without a formal charge. Though unable to speak for two days after the attack, she returned on the third day with a folder of medical evidence in order to file charges against the police officers who assaulted her.
Police officers reportedly attacked Mtetwa again in 2007, beating her and three colleagues with rubber truncheons during a march protesting harassment of Zimbabwe's lawyers.
In an interview with the
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...
, Mtetwa described her procedure for averting potential attacks:
"I think I confront the danger immediately before it happens. I always make sure that if, for instance, I'm called in the middle of the night to a scene that is potentially dangerous, I make sure that there are as many media practitioners as possible, particularly to record what will happen there. And in the glare of cameras I find that people don't want to do what they would want to do. So in a lot of ways I think I've been lucky, and I haven't received as much harassment as one would have expected, or as much as other human rights defenders have had."
On 17 March 2013, Mtetwa was arrested while executing her professional duties. She was attending to a client whose home was searched by the police. Mtetwa was placed under arrest after requesting the production of a valid search warrant and an inventory list of items that had already been removed. Her mobile phone, containing privileged attorney-client communication, was confiscated. She was charged with defeating and / or obstructing the course of justice under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, section 184(1)(g).
The Zimbabwean police defied an emergency high court ruling ordering the release of Mtetwa and continued to hold her on charges of obstructing justice. After more than a week in jail, Mtetwa was released on Monday 25 March 2013 after a high court judge overruled a lower court's decision that she be held without bail on a charge of obstruction of justice.
On November 26, 2013 Magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa said Mtetwa had no case to answer to. Magistrate Mugwagwa found that there was no evidence to suggest that Mtetwa caused the police to fail to perform their duties.
International recognition
In 2005, she won the
International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The award citation stated that "in a country where the law is used as a weapon against independent journalists, Mtetwa has defended journalists and argued for press freedom, all at great personal risk."
She also won the group's Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.
Mtetwa was also received several awards from legal organizations. In 2009, the
European Bar Human Rights Institute
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
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awarded her the
Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize
The Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize, or Ludovic Trarieux Award, is an international human rights award given annually to a lawyer for contributions to the defence of human rights.
History
The Prize was inaugurated in Bordeaux i ...
("The award given by lawyers to a lawyer"), reserved each year to a lawyer who throughout his or her career has illustrated, by activity or suffering, the defence of human rights in the world. Mtetwa also won the 2010 International Human Rights award of the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
.
In 2011, she was awarded the Inamori Ethics Prize by
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
in the US. In 2014 she was a recipient of the
International Women of Courage Award
The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have ...
.
St. Francis Xavier University located in Nova Scotia, Canada, was the first university to celebrate Mtetwa's many achievements by presenting her with an honorary degree in May 2013.
In December 2013 Mtetwa was awarded with an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of Bath in the United Kingdom in recognition of her work.
In April 2016, Mtetwa was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree by Rhodes University in South Africa in recognition of her achievements in the promotion and protection of human rights in Zimbabwe.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mtetwa, Beatrice
Living people
Zimbabwean activists
Zimbabwean women activists
Zimbabwean women lawyers
Recipients of the International Women of Courage Award
1957 births
20th-century Zimbabwean lawyers
21st-century Zimbabwean lawyers