NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF BOTSWANA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA
Athaliah Lesiba Molokomme, the new Permanent Representative of Botswana to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented her credentials to Michael Møller, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
Prior to her appointment to Geneva, Ms. Molokomme served as Attorney General of Botswana from October 2005 to December 2016, during which time she was an ex officio member of the Botswana Cabinet and participated in several high policy level committees and councils. From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Molokomme was a judge of the High Court of Botswana. Between 1998 and 2003, she was the founding head of the Gender Unit at the Secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
From 1996 to 1998, Ms. Molokomme worked as the Executive Director of Emang Basadi, a leading women’s human rights organization she had co-founded in 1986. Before that, from 1981 to 1996, she taught family law, employment law, and customary law at the University of Botswana, with periods of study leave in between. During that period, she conducted research and published extensively in the field of law.
Ms. Molokomme obtained her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Botswana and Swaziland in 1981; a Masters in Law (LLM) from Yale Law School, United States, in 1983; and a Doctorate in Law (PhD) at Leiden University, the Netherlands, in 1991. She is a founding member of several regional organizations, including Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA), Women, Law and Development International (WLDI), and Gender Links. Among the awards she has received are the Women’s Human Rights Award from Women, Law and Development International in 1993, and the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service for Exceptional Service to Botswana in 1999.
Born in Francistown, Botswana in 1959, Ms. Molokomme is married and has two children.
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CR17/015E