The board, staff and membership of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is profoundly saddened to learn about the unfortunate passing on on Saturday 4 December 2021 of Dewa Mavhinga, a passionate and extraordinary human rights defender and a dear colleague to many of us who focused on documenting violations of human rights in Zimbabwe and the African region.

Throughout his career, Dewa served as a true inspiration to us all and blazed a trail for promotion and protection of human rights and remained committed to be a voice for the voiceless and helped several of us with documenting and reporting on numerous human rights violations.

Dewa was known throughout the development and human rights community not just for how he was articulate but also inspirational and for his human warmth. His passing is a loss for the people of Zimbabwe, Africa and the rest of the world.

We have lost an extraordinary activist who showed the skills of leadership and great determination and his legacy will stand as an example to all of us to persist in our pursuit of progress and a just and democratic world.

ZLHR was fortunate enough to have worked closely with Dewa on a number of occasions over the years and every time that we interacted with him we were struck by both the force of his personality and the quality of his intellect.

In solidarity, ZLHR reaffirms its commitment to protect human rights and the human rights defenders who uphold them. This was the ideal to which Dewa was dedicated and we must ensure that this will be his legacy.

The passing on of Dewa is an enormous loss to his family, his extended family including Human Rights Watch and to the world he cared so much about.

ZLHR extends its most sincere condolences to his wife Fiona, his children, the Mavhinga family, friends and colleagues as we grieve together with them during this painful moment.

May God grant Dewa eternal rest and may his memory and deeds live on and be remembered for posterity.