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University of Zimbabwe Wins the All Africa Regional Moot Court Competition on International Humanitarian Law 2024!
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Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Embarks on a Study Visit to Kenya’s Commission on Administrative Justice
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Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission undertakes a Study Visit to the South African Public Protector
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ZHRC’s Awareness-Raising and Outreach Activities help to disseminate awareness and knowledge of human rights and the Constitution of Zimbabwe
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Winter School on Human Rights 1-12 July 2024
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute-Harare Office, in collaboration with five academic partners, hosted a Winter School on Human Rights from 1-12 July 2024, bringing together 20 law students at Midlands State University in Gweru and Africa University in Mutare.
The Zimbabwe Programme
We aim to enhance access to justice in Zimbabwe; through legislation, policies, practices and decision-making increasingly based on international human rights standards and principles.
RWI has been supporting human rights initiatives in Zimbabwe since 1992, primarily with funding from Sweden, but since 2021 also with funding from the European Union. Cooperation in Zimbabwe has over the years included human rights capacity development for several sectors, including government departments, justice sector institutions, independent commissions, academic institutions and civil society organisations. The Institute has also with funding from Sida awarded scholarships to Zimbabweans for participation in the Master of International Human Rights Law Programme, organised by RWI in cooperation with the Faculty of Law at Lund University.
Read more about our respective Sida-funded and EU-funded Cooperation Programme here:
Read moreThe latest news and articles from The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Zimbabwe Programme Staff
Mikael Johansson

Mikael Johansson
Director of Harare Office (Country Director)
Phone: + 263 77 500 4361
Cell phone: + 46 70 212 7165 /whatsapp
E-mail: mikael.johansson@rwi.lu.se
Mikael Johansson holds a Master of Laws from the Faculty of Law at Lund University, with specialisation in international human rights law and international humanitarian law. He has been with the Institute since 1991 and has held several positions within the department for international programmes, including head of programmes, and has also functioned as the Institute’s advisor on Strategic Planning and Quality Assurance. He is currently the director of the Institute´s Zimbabwe Programme and Harare Office, and the Institute’s Senior Policy Adviser on Anti-Corruption and Human Rights. From September 2004 to August 2006 Mikael worked at the Embassy of Sweden in Harare, as the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency’s (Sida), Regional Adviser for Democracy and Human Rights for Southern Africa.
Mikael’s work experience covers management of institutional and human rights capacity development programmes and strategic planning and policy development related to development cooperation and human rights, including results based management and application of human rights based approaches to development. He has vast experience in the fields of administration of justice, rule of law and anti-corruption. He is the current coordinator of the UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme Network of Institutes and he is since 2011 member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law.
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Isis Sartori Reis

Isis Sartori Reis works with RWI’s human rights capacity development programme for Zimbabwe, as well as with RWI’s China in the World Dialogue and Capacity-Bridging Initiative. Isis’ expertise includes results-based management, human rights and anti-corruption, and gender mainstreaming.
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Moreblessing Mbire

Moreblessing currently works with RWI’s human rights capacity development programme for Zimbabwe particularly in the academic cooperation component.
She has more than seven years’ experience working in the human rights sector in Zimbabwe. She has experience in communications, advocacy and project management. Before joining RWI, Moreblessing worked for the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) as the Advocacy and Communications Officer making significant contributions to the promotion of human rights and access to justice.
Moreblessing also has experience working with state institutions including academia, civil society organisations and development partners.
She holds a Master of Arts degree with a specialisation in Human Rights, Development and Social Justice from the Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands), a Bachelor of Laws degree (South Africa) and a Bachelor’s degree in Media and Society Studies (Zimbabwe).
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Ashley Muza

Ashley is a recent graduate of Bachelor of Laws Honours degree from Herbert Chitepo Law School at Great Zimbabwe University. She will be working primarly with RWI’s academic cooperation component. She has a considerable background in human hights studies obtained during the course of her degree and human rights related advocacy skills obtained through moot courts participation.
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Innocent Mawire

Innocent Mawire, is a lawyer by profession, and has acquired extensive experience on public sector and human rights matters in Zimbabwe spanning more than a decade. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) Degree from the University of Zimbabwe (2005) and is also a graduate of the Master’s degree in International Human Rights Law from Lund University, Sweden (2019). Before his studies in Lund Innocent worked at the Department for Policy and Legal Research at the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs in Zimbabwe, where he, inter alia, served in the secretariat of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the secretariat of the Universal Period Review National Steering Committee. Further, Innocent served as the Ministry of Justice representative on the Governance and Institution Building Thematic Cluster under the Resumed 11th Round of the European Development Fund as well as the Focal Point in the Department’s Intellectual Property Unit where he led the processes towards the development of Zimbabwe’s first ever National IP Policy and Strategy Framework, including Zimbabwe’s accession to the WIPO Madrid Protocol for the International Registration Mark (1989).
Innocent also served as the Secretary to the Council for Legal Education and was instrumental in the establishment of the Faculties of Law’s inaugural LLB degrees at Great Zimbabwe University and the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University. Most recently, Innocent is coming from the UNDP Zimbabwe Country Office, where he served as National Public Sector Reform Officer within the Governance and Peace Building Unit providing technical support to capacity development initiatives to the Tripartite Partners of the Public Service Commission, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the Office of the President and Cabinet.
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Peacewell Makhurane

Peacewell Makhurane currently works with RWI’s human rights capacity development programme for Zimbabwe particularly under the cooperation with Independent Commissions and the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS).
Peacewell completed his Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies Honours Degree in the year 2020 from the Midlands State University. He developed passion and enthusiasm to work towards the protection and promotion of human rights during his internship period at Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) from 2018 to 2019. He has been working with planning and implementation of human rights education, awareness campaigns, outreaches, monitoring and inspection, complaints handling, investigations, developing learning and teaching materials for capacity building and raising awareness of human rights at deferent levels of society.
He is currently studying his Master of Arts in Development Studies Degree which he believes will capacitate him with knowledge and skills to promote values, beliefs and attitudes that encourage all individuals to uphold their own rights and those of others, to empower them, to contribute to the building and promotion of a universal culture of human rights at different levels of society.
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