Edmore Masendeke

ESR Project Title: Voice and Access to Justice

Email: lw12etm@leeds.ac.uk

Early Stage Researcher, University of Leeds

Edmore holds an Honours Degree in Business Studies from the University of Zimbabwe and an L.L.M in European and International Human Rights Law from the University of Leeds. After obtaining his L.L.M., Edmore participated in an Open Society Foundation funded research internship at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. His research focused on the implementation of Article 19 of the CRPD in South Africa.

Edmore is a disability activist from Zimbabwe.  He is also a poet and blogger of issues pertaining to the rights and challenges of people with disabilities. In 2010, Edmore founded Endless Possibilities, an organisation that runs empowerment programmes for people with disabilities and advocates for their rights. As a disability activist, Edmore built himself an accessible house and used it to advocate for the enactment of laws that promote the designing and building of accessible houses in Zimbabwe.

Edmore is also a member of the board of trustees of the Dyslexia in Africa Trust and a founding member of the Pan-African Network of Youths with Disabilities.

Research Interests

Independent living, access to justice, children with disabilities, legal capacity, inclusive education.

PhD Research topic: Barriers and facilitators to hearing the voices of people with psychosocial and intellectual impairments in legal proceedings in Europe: in search of good practice

Publications

Book Chapters

Masendeke E, ‘Disability advocacy in action: why I built an accessible house in Zimbabwe’ in Chataika T (ed) The Routledge Handbook of Disability in Southern Africa (London and New York: Routledge 2019)

Conferences and Presentations

• African Disability Rights Conference 2018 ‘Benefits and challenges of reverse inclusion: insights from children with and without disabilities at King George VI Memorial School in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’
• African Disability Rights Conference 2017 ‘Personal reflections on what access to justice means for persons with disabilities’
• University of Zimbabwe Conference on Disability, Citizenship and Participation 2017 (Keynote address) ‘Considering socio-partial activism in housing structures: insights from personal experience’
• Endless Possibilities Conference on Making Cities Inclusive and Accessible for All 2016 ‘Meeting the Housing Needs of Persons with Disabilities’
• National University of Science and Technology (NUST) Student Affairs Conference 2015 ‘Reasonable Accommodation at Tertiary Institutions: A Comparative Analysis of a Student’s Experience in Zimbabwe, the United States and the United Kingdom’