Dr Mariam Kamunyu is a feminist human rights lawyer and gender equality expert with a specialisation in the African human rights system. Her expertise and research interests largely focus on examining and influencing the gender responsiveness of laws, institutions and practices towards enhancing protection and promotion of women’s rights within the African human rights system and national contexts. Other research interests comprise the nexus between human rights, democracy and governance and their implications for the realisation of human rights in Africa. She holds a Doctor of Laws (University of Pretoria/ UP) where her research focused on an intersectional feminist analysis of the African human rights system. She also holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights and Democratisation (UP) and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Besides practicing as a human rights lawyer/gender equality expert, Mariam also teaches international human rights law at CUEA and the gender responsiveness of the African human rights system at UP.

Mariam has over 10 years’ civil society experience working exclusively on women’s rights in Africa with a focus on the pursuit of state accountability targeted at closing the policy and practice gap that hinders the realisation of women and girls’ rights. This work has included research, programme design, human rights training curriculum development and capacity enhancement of various human rights actors including high level duty bearers, practitioners and leading grassroots actors.