Zimbabwe LAWA Fellow 2003-2004 L.L.B., University of Zimbabwe Diploma in Women’s Law, University of Zimbabwe L.L.M., Georgetown University Law Center Africa Program Associate GLOBAL RIGHTS – Partners for Justice 1200 18th Street NW # 602 Washington DC, 2036 Work Phone: 202 822 4600 Work Fax: 202 822 4606 Work email: ruvimbom@globalrights.org

Profile:

Ruvimbo Masunungure, is the Africa Program Associate responsible for Global Rights’ Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and West Africa Programs. She is the primary point of contact with Global Rights’ field-based staff in West Africa. In that capacity, she helps plan, design and support the implementation of projects to strengthen civil society and human rights organizations in both countries and the West Africa region. She also researches and identifies new critical areas of the human rights struggle in the respective countries/regions, drafts concept papers and funding proposals to articulate new areas of work.

LAWA Experience:

Ms. Masunungure’s graduate paper was entitled, “Reforming Zimbabwe’s Customary Marriage Law: a Prerequisite for Preventing Women’s Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.” For her fellowship internship she worked on the Policy Project of The Futures Group in Washington, D.C.

Additional Experience:

Prior to LAWA, Ms. Masunungure worked in Zimbabwe with the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association where she implemented litigation, advocacy and legislative reform projects to advance the legal status of women. Ms. Masunungure also worked as part of the organization’s human rights training team, where she designed training manuals and conducted training for the judiciary, traditional dispute resolution officials and marginalized communities.  As part of the Zimbabwe Women’s Coalition, Ms. Masunungure contributed to the research and documentation for a report on politically motivated sexual and gender based violence in Zimbabwe.   She also was part of a civil society delegation that presented the findings of the report to the African Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Economic and Social Council Commission on the Status of Women in 2003.

Ms. Masunungure has co-authored a manual for the training of rural based community legal educators and has written papers on access to justice for victims of sexual and gender based violence in contexts of political repression.

Recognition:

In February 2002, Ms. Masunungure was a finalist in the worldwide “Stop Rape” writing competition organized by a New York organization called Equality Now.

Publications:

 “Bride Price: Balancing Gender Equality and Cultural Identity.”

Several articles on marital rape published in a local daily newspaper.