Consultant Partner - Human Rights and Constitutional Law

Ramatoulie Isatou Jallow is a distinguished human rights attorney admitted to practice in the High Court of the Republic of Botswana whose eight‑year career blends civil and public interest litigation with policy research, advocacy, and program leadership across Botswana, the Gambia, and the broader African region. As a Mary Frances Berry Senior Fellow at the Center on Ethics & Rule of Law (CERL) at the University of Pennsylvania since September 2023, she leads qualitative and quantitative research on conflict prevention and democratic resilience, including policy briefs on military civic education and analyses of U.S. responses to Sahelian coups. In 2023 she earned a Master of Laws in National Security from Georgetown University Law Center—where she received the Dean’s Certificate for Outstanding Service—building on her LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the University of Pretoria, where she was awarded the Victor Dankwa Prize for Best Performance in Human Rights.

Prior to her fellowship, Ramatoulie served as Senior Research Associate at Georgetown’s Innovation Council for International Justice, conducting transitional justice consultations for Ukraine, and at the United States Institute of Peace, where she facilitated mediation frameworks in Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis and advanced women’s inclusion in peace processes. As Legal Associate to the Pan African Parliament of the African Union, she negotiated key legislative instruments on food security, monitored treaty ratifications, and drafted resolutions on women and children in armed conflict. From 2020 to the present, she has scaled “Peace by Peace,” a Botswana‑based initiative fostering pre‑conflict peacebuilding and community dialogue on gender‑based violence, mental health, and LGBTQIA+ rights, reaching over 20,000 participants and influencing the establishment of specialized GBV courts and police units. Earlier roles include Human Rights and Gender Specialist for BONELA, where she led TB community rights assessments for the Ministry of Health, and civil litigation practice at Ndadi Law Firm.

Ramatoulie holds a Bachelor of Laws with Honors from the University of Botswana (2016) and multiple advanced certificates in socio‑economic rights, disability rights, and the African human rights system from the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. Her thought leadership—spanning published case studies, policy briefs, and conference presentations at the Wilson Center and Kroc Institute—underscores her commitment to gender‑sensitive conflict prevention, AU governance reform, and sustainable peace culture in Africa.