Crackdown in Zimbabwe: a serious challenge to the Rule of Law and Human Rights

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC

Helena is one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers and an expert in human rights law, civil liberties and constitutional issues. Helena has spent her professional life giving voice to those who have least power within the system, championing civil liberties and promoting human rights. She has used many public platforms – including the House of Lords, to which she was elevated in 1997 – to argue with passion, wit and humanity for social justice. She has also written and broadcast on a wide range of issues, from medical negligence to terrorism to the rights of women and children.

She is a member of the House of Lords and chair of Justice, the British arm of the International Commission of Jurists. She is a bencher of Gray’s Inn and president of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She was the chair of Charter 88 from 1992 to 1997, the Human Genetics Commission from 1998 to 2007 and the British Council from 1998 to 2004. She also chaired the Power Inquiry, which reported on the state of British democracy and produced the Power Report in 2006. She has received honours for her work on human rights from the governments of France and Italy and has been awarded more than 30 honorary doctorates.

Linda Kasonde

Linda is a legal practitioner based in Lusaka, Zambia. Ms. Kasonde was admitted to the Zambian Bar in 2001. Linda obtained an LLB Law Degree from the University of Leicester in England in 2000 and an LLM Law Degree from the University of Cape Town. She was previously a named partner at the firm Mulenga Mundashi Kasonde Legal practitioners where she had worked for fifteen years. Previously, she worked as an Advocate at the National Legal Aid Clinic for Women for three years. Ms. Kasonde is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb) in England and Zambia. She is a former member of the inaugural Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal in Zambia.