Biography
Dr. Athaliah Molokomme is Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Botswana to Switzerland and the UN Office in Geneva. From October 2005 to December 2016, she was Attorney General of Botswana. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Botswana and Swaziland, a Masters in Law from Yale Law School, and a PhD in Law from Leiden University.
She taught law at the University of Botswana from 1981 to 1996, and has researched and published extensively in the felds of family law, customary law, employment law, human rights and gender equality. For the past three decades, she has been a regular speaker at national, regional and international conferences, workshops and seminars in her areas of expertise. She has served on several boards, commissions and professional organisations at a national, regional and international level. Her awards include the Women’s Human Rights Award from Women, Law and Development International in 1993, the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service for Exceptional Service to Botswana in 1999, and the US Ambassador‘s award as one of the Vanguard Women Leaders of Botswana in 2005. From July 1998, Dr. Molokomme was founding head of the Gender Unit at the Secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), until May 2003 when she was appointed Judge of the High Court of Botswana.
In October 2005, she was appointed to the position of Attorney General of the Republic of Botswana, in which capacity she was the Principal Legal Advisor to the country‘s government under the Constitution, is an ex oficio member of the Botswana Cabinet, and represented the Botswana Government on various Boards, Councils and Committees.
During her tenure as Attorney General, she participated in the annual meetings of the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC, often as Head of the Botswana Delegation, and various ASP side events. She was an active participant in the Africa Group negotiations that led to the Kampala Amendments at the Review Conference in June 2010. Thereafter, she played a pivotal role in Botswana‘s ratifcation of the Kampala Amendments on the Crime of Aggression on 15 April 2013.
Dr Molokomme is also a member of the Justice Leadership Group, based in The Hague, The Netherlands, and the Advisory Council of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy, based in Germany.