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Discover›Law
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Unity Dow
Lawyer

Unity Dow

Famoose for

Challenging gender discrimination in Botswana’s citizenship law.

Unity Dow case · LEGABIBO case

Born
23 April 1959
Birthplace
Mochudi

More people

Ruth Bader GinsburgAdvancing gender equality as a lawyer and US Supreme Court justice.B. R. AmbedkarChairing India’s constitutional drafting committee and challenging caste discrimination.Thurgood MarshallArguing Brown v. Board of Education and becoming the first Black US Supreme Court justice.

Unity Dow

Unity Dow is a Botswana lawyer, novelist and former High Court judge whose work spans human rights and public service.

Early life

Education

Grew up in Mochudi and studied law in Swaziland and Edinburgh, graduating in 1983.

Career

  1. 1980s

    Legal practice

    Opened a law firm run by women.

  2. 1992

    Citizenship case

    Succeeded in challenging a discriminatory nationality law.

  3. 1997

    High Court

    Became the court’s first woman judge.

Selected work

Unity Dow case

Established that married mothers could transmit citizenship to their children.

LEGABIBO case

Helped secure the organisation’s right to registration.

Beyond work

Fiction

Began publishing novels in 2000, exploring social and legal issues through storytelling.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: PopTech. CC BY-SA 2.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.