Dr Sanji Mmasenono Monageng
Member, Board of Directors
HER EXCELLENCY DR SANJI MMASENONO MONAGENG
Her Excellency Dr Sanji Mmasenono Monageng is a lawyer by profession and an alumnus of the University of Botswana. She is a retired Judge of the International Criminal Court, The Hague, The Netherlands, where she served in the Pre-Trial Division (2009 -2012 and the Appeals Division (2012 – 2018) of the Court, and also as the Court’s First Vice President (2012 to 2015). She also served as an expert High Court Judge in The Republic of The Gambia (2006 and 2007) and the Kingdom of Eswatini (2008 –2009), under the auspices of the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, United Kingdom. Prior to that, she served as a Magistrate in the Courts of the Republic of Botswana (1987 – 1997) and as the founder Chief Executive Officer of the Law Society of Botswana (1997 to 2005). Dr Monageng is a human rights expert having served as a Commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, (the premier body that is mandated to promote and protect human and peoples’ rights on the African continent), which is also an organ of the African Union (2003 – 2009), and as its Chairperson (2007 to 2009).
She sits on numerous national, regional and international human rights and rule of law boards. She is also a member of Associations such as the International Commission of Missing Persons (The Hague, The Netherlands). This organization works with governments, civil society organisations, justice institutions, international organisations and others throughout the world, to address the issue of people who have gone missing as a result of armed conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organised crime, irregular migration and other causes.
She is a member of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), Washington. The IAWJ works with over 1800 judges in 5 countries to increase women’s leadership in and access to judiciaries. Her continuous engagement in gender issues makes her one of the experts in such issues.
Dr Monageng is one of the founder members and first President of the Competition and Consumer Tribunal of Botswana under the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry. She is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London, the United Kingdom and practices as an International Commercial Arbitrator and a domestic Arbitrator, and is a member of the Botswana Institute of Arbitrators.
Dr Monageng has been a Panel Member in International Trade and Commercial Arbitration Dispute Settlement panels, administered by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Paris and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), World Bank, Washington. She has also sat on a World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Judge has done many domestic arbitrations and mediations in her native Botswana. She is a Judge of the Southern African Development Community Administrative Tribunal (SADCAT), an administrative Tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Gaborone, Botswana.
She has also served as a member and President of the Botswana National Gender Commission, which Commission is tasked with advising government on gender issues, particularly on policy development and service delivery. Dr Monageng is presently the Botswana High Commissioner to the Republic of South Africa.
She has been bestowed Awards by the Botswana Government - the Presidential Order of Honor, awarded by HE the President of Botswana for outstanding service to Botswana, and the International Association of Women Judges – a Human Rights Award for an exemplary judicial career, commitment to protect and promote human rights, women’s and children’s rights and distinguished service for national and international human rights institutions.
Dr Monageng is presently the Botswana High Commissioner to the Republic of South Africa.
