Unity Dow, Botswana’s first female High Court judge, has a long record as a human rights attorney. She co-founded the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research Project and is a member of International Women’s Rights Watch, an advocacy organization. Judge Dow was the plaintiff in a ground-breaking legal case that led to the passage of legislation that enabled women to pass on their nationality to their children. She has also written about the link between the Convention on the Rights of the Child and children’s legal status in Botswana. She lives with her family in Lobatse, Botswana.

Explaining her choice to focus her first novel, Far and Beyon’ (Aunt Lute, 2002) on the AIDS crisis, Dow says, “I really could not have written a contemporary novel on Botswana without devoting a major part of it to AIDS. I can’t imagine a five-minute conservation about anything not somehow veering towards AIDS. If I invite guests to dinner, I can expect at least one to cancel at short notice because of a funeral or illness to attend to.” Dow is the author of three other novels, The Screaming of the Innocent (Spinifex, 2002); The Heavens May Fall (Spinifex, 2006); and Saturday is For Funerals (Harvard University, 2010), co-written with AIDS researcher Max Essex. She has also written a childhood memoir, Juggling Truths (Spinifex, 2003).

Dow is also the co-founder of the AIDS Action Trust and the Women and Law in Southern Africa Project. She has also worked with human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and UNICEF. Since retiring from her High Court position in April 2009, Dow has opened her own private practice, Dow & Associates. She is also a visiting professor at many law schools throughout the country including Columbia University and Washington & Lee University.