Alumni Spotlight: Tafadzwa Mugabe LL.M ‘09
Tafadzwa Mugabe is a program manager for the Human Rights Defenders’ Emergency Project at the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). When he heard he was accepted to the LL.M. program at the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Mugabe was in Geneva, seeking further international assistance for his country.
“This was the spring of 2008, one of Zimbabwe’s most violent times in recent memory,” he recalled. “The ruling party was silencing opposition by extreme violence.” Anyone perceived as supporting the opposition, including lawyers like Mugabe, were in danger.
By most standards the previous eight years could be considered demanding as well. Since Mugabe had begun studying law in 2000, Zimbabwe had experienced a marked increase in political polarization and human rights violations. By 2004 when Mugabe began working full time for ZLHR, the government’s controversial land redistribution program had begun.
Mugabe and the ZLHR worked to bring justice to thousands of people whom the ruling party displaced. In one instance, the government evicted 700,000 families and destroyed their homes under the guise of cleaning up urban areas. As the situation worsened, Mugabe, who had been considering further legal studies, knew the time was right to study aboard.
Sean O’Brien, assistant director of the Center, says a student like Mugabe brings incredible knowledge from the field to the classroom, enriching the experience for other students, and the teaching. “Any insights or strategies you can offer him are going to be employed,” said O’Brien. “It magnifies the reach you have as a professor.”
Mugabe considers his Notre Dame experience a rewarding intellectual exercise, as well as a time to reflect and prepare for the challenges he will face back home, such as the unlawful detention of some thirty people—human rights defenders and members of the opposition party—abducted by the government. “I spent much of Christmas break in Zimbabwe assisting my colleagues with that case,” says Mugabe.
Now that the Zimbabwean government has reached a power sharing agreement, will Zimbabwe see better days?
“It would appear they are trying to avoid the problems of the past,” said Mugabe. “But ZLHR’s primary focus will remain the same. Simply because former clients of ours are now in government doesn’t mean we won’t demand the reform of the constitution and state institutions. I look forward to being a part of the transformation. With what I’ve learned, I should be able to make a difference.”
