Dzikamai Bere is a Zimbabwean civic leader, movement builder, author, activist, peace worker and a transitional justice expert. Currently, he works as the National Director for the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights). ZimRights is Zimbabwe’s first post-independence indigenous human rights advocacy group, formed in 1992 with a growing grassroots membership of over 250 000 individual members across the country.

In other civic leadership assignments, Dzikamai is the current Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP).

In the past, Dzikamai worked with various civic groups in various capacities. These include the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, the National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG), Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, the Mandela School of Public Governance, Reimagine Peacebuilding, Berghof Foundation, among others.

For his firm belief in the role of human rights in social transformation, Dzikamai has been awarded several leadership fellowships that influenced his role in Zimbabwe’s civil society movement. In 2015, Dzikamai was awarded the Transitional Justice in Africa Fellowship with the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2016, we was awarded the Leading in Public Life Fellowship by the Mandela School at the University of Cape Town. In 2017, he was awarded the Mandela Washington Fellowship where he specialised in Civic Leadership at the
Presidential Precinct in Virginia.

For his work in transitional justice and human rights in Zimbabwe, Dzikamai was awarded the 2019 Presidential Precinct’s Young Leaders Award presented by leading author John Grisham and philanthropist Renee Grisham at the Salute Africa event held in Washington DC. In 2024, Dzikamai was awarded the NGO Director of the Year Award at the Annual NGO Awards hosted by the National Association for Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO).

Dzikamai has written numerous articles on civic leadership, human rights, peacebuilding, and transitional justice. In 2022, he edited a book called Leadership with Compassion, which he co-authored with five emerging leaders in Zimbabwe. Another essential product is a book chapter
contribution to the book launched on 4 June 2021 by the Africa Judges and Jurists Forum. The book is titled, Budding Democracy or Judicialisation: Lessons from Africa’s Emerging Electoral Jurisprudence. His book Chapter is called, “Pre-Electoral Period: Election Environment Law and Practice for Restoring the Promise of African Elections.”

Most recently, in 2023, he contributed two Chapters to the book, African Union and Transitional Justice: Healing the Past and Restoring Human Dignity, edited by Prof. Tim Murithi. You can follow Dzikamai’s writings on www.theciviclens.org