About Dzikamai Bere

Dzikamai Bere is a Zimbabwean human rights activist, a peace worker and a transitional justice expert. Currently, he works as  the National Director for the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights). ZimRights is Zimbabwe’s first post-independence indigenous human rights advocacy group, formed in 1992 with a growing grassroots membership of over 250 000 individual members across the country.

Prior to his appointment to the current assignment, Dzikamai worked as the  Programmes Coordinator at the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (the Forum) and the Coordinator of the National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG).

Since 2009, he has worked in the area of policy advocacy, human rights research and transitional justice. Before joining civil society, he has worked as a Magistrate in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second capital city. He holds Bachelors’ degrees in History and Law. In 2012, Dzikamai completed a Master’s Degree in Conflict Transformation at the World Peace Academy in Switzerland under the mentorship of Prof. Johan Galtung, the founder of the discipline of peace studies.

For his firm belief in the role of human rights in social transformation, Dzikamai has been awarded several leadership fellowships that influenced his role in Zimbabwe’s civil society movement. In 2015, he was selected to participate in the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’s Transitional Justice in Africa Fellowship. In 2016, he participated in the Mandela School’s Leading in Public Life Fellowship hosted at the University of Cape town.  In 2017, he participated in the Young African Leaders Initiative’s Mandela Washington Fellowship at the Presidential Precinct in Virginia. In 2019, Dzikamai was awarded the Presidential Precinct’s Young Leaders Award at the Salute Africa event held in Washington DC.

Dzikamai has written a number of articles on human rights, peacebuilding and transitional justice. His latest writing is a Chapter contribution to  the book launched on 4 June 2021 by the Africa Judges and Jurists Forum. The book is titled, Budding Democracy or Judicialisation: Lessons from Africa’s Emerging Electoral Jurisprudence. His book Chapter is called, “Pre-Electoral Period: Election Environment Law and Practice for Restoring the Promise of African Elections.”