A01658 - Beatrice Mtetwa, Defender of Journalists and Press Freedom

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Beatrice Mtetwa is a Swazi was born 1957^[1] and naturalised Zimbabwean lawyer who has been internationally recognized for her defense of journalists and press freedom. The New York Times described her in 2008 as "Zimbabwe's top human rights lawyer".^[2]

Mtetwa received her LLB from the University of Botswana and Swaziland in 1981 and spent the next two years working as a prosecuting attorney in Swaziland.^[3] In 1983, she moved to Zimbabwe, where she continued working as a prosecutor until 1989.^[3] That year, she went into private practice, and soon began specializing in human rights law.^[3] In one of her more notable cases, she successfully challenged a section of Zimbabwe's Private Voluntary Organizations Act which allowed a government minister the authority to dissolve or replace the board members of non-governmental organizations.^[3] She also challenged the results of 37 districts in the 2000 parliamentary elections.^[3] In a PBS documentary, Mtetwa described her motives for her activism as "not because there is any glory or cash to it and not because I'm trying to antagonize the government... I'm doing it because it's a job that's got to be done".^[4]

Mtetwa is particularly noted for her defense of arrested journalists, both local and international.^[5] In 2003, for example, she won a court order preventing the deportation of Guardian reporter Andrew Meldrum, presenting it to security officials at Harare International Airport only minutes before Meldrum's plane was scheduled to depart.^[6] She also won acquittals for detained reporters Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds from London's Sunday Telegraph, who had been arrested during coverage of the April parliamentary election on charges of working without government accreditation.^[5] In April 2008, she secured the release of New York Times reporter Barry Bearak, who had been imprisoned on similar charges.^[2] She also defended many local journalists arrested in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.^[7] Mtetwa is also a director who sits on Econet board .

Mtetwa and Tawanda Nyambirai founded Mtetwa & Nyambirai Legal Practitioners in 2006 and it has established itself over the past decade as one of Zimbabwe's leading law firms. Mtetwa & Nyambirai's history is punctuated by landmark cases in multiple areas of the law. With Econet Wireless’s the largest telecommunications company in Zimbabwe being the firms most notable clients, the Econet name appears on many of those landmark cases. These include cases such as Econet Wireless v Trustco Mobile, and Derdale v Econet Wireless which is now the seminal case on the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court under the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe.

Mtetwa's firm has been involved with multiple high-profile human rights cases. Notably, we were instrumental in the recovery of abducted activist Jestina Mukoko — who was held incommunicado and tortured for nearly a month in 2008. Mtetwa subsequently handled a string of related legal cases that followed, including securing a stay of prosecution for Ms Mukoko and suing her abductors for damages in their personal capacity. Over the years, the Mtetwa and Nyambirai has grown into a full service law firm with the capacity to handle matters relating to all aspects of Zimbabwean law.^[8]

In 2003, Mtetwa was arrested on allegations of drunk driving. At the police station, she was reportedly beaten and choked before being released three hours later without a formal charge. Though unable to speak for two days after the attack, she returned on the third day with a folder of medical evidence in order to file charges against the police officers who assaulted her.^[5] Police officers reportedly attacked Mtetwa again in 2007, beating her and three colleagues with rubber truncheons during a march protesting harassment of Zimbabwe's lawyers.^[7][9]

In an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists, Mtetwa described her procedure for averting potential attacks:

"I think I confront the danger immediately before it happens. I always make sure that if, for instance, I'm called in the middle of the night to a scene that is potentially dangerous, I make sure that there are as many media practitioners as possible, particularly to record what will happen there. And in the glare of cameras I find that people don't want to do what they would want to do. So in a lot of ways I think I've been lucky, and I haven't received as much harassment as one would have expected, or as much as other human rights defenders have had."^[5]

On 17 March 2013, Mtetwa was arrested while executing her professional duties. She was attending to a client whose home was searched by the police. Mtetwa was placed under arrest after requesting the production of a valid search warrant and an inventory list of items that had already been removed. Her mobile phone, containing privileged attorney-client communication, was confiscated. She was charged with defeating and / or obstructing the course of justice under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, section 184(1)(g).

The Zimbabwean police defied an emergency high court ruling ordering the release of Mtetwa and continued to hold her on charges of obstructing justice. After more than a week in jail, Mtetwa was released on Monday 25 March 2013 after a high court judge overruled a lower court's decision that she be held without bail on a charge of obstruction of justice.

On November 26, 2013, Magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa said Mtetwa had no case to answer to. Magistrate Mugwagwa found that there was no evidence to suggest that Mtetwa caused the police to fail to perform their duties.^[10]

In 2005, she won the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists.^[5] The award citation stated that "in a country where the law is used as a weapon against independent journalists, Mtetwa has defended journalists and argued for press freedom, all at great personal risk."^[5] She also won the group's Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.^[7]

Mtetwa was also received several awards from legal organizations. In 2009, the European Bar Human Rights Institute awarded her the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize ("The award given by lawyers to a lawyer"), reserved each year to a lawyer who throughout his or her career has illustrated, by activity or suffering, the defence of human rights in the world.^[11] Mtetwa also won the 2010 International Human Rights award of the American Bar Association.^[3] In 2011, she was awarded the Inamori Ethics Prize by Case Western Reserve University in the US.^[12] In 2014 she was a recipient of the International Women of Courage Award.^[13]

St. Francis Xavier University, located in Nova Scotia, Canada, was the first university to celebrate Mtetwa's many achievements by presenting her with an honorary degree in May 2013.

In December 2013 Mtetwa was awarded with an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of Bath in the United Kingdom in recognition of her work.^[14]

In April 2016, Mtetwa was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree by Rhodes University in South Africa in recognition of her achievements in the promotion and protection of human rights in Zimbabwe.

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Beatrice Mtetwa is a Zimbabwean lawyer who has been internationally recognized for her defense of journalists and press freedom.  The New York Times described her in 2008 as "Zimbabwe's top human rights lawyer".

Mtetwa received her LLB from the University of Botswana and Swaziland in 1981 and spent the next two years working as a prosecuting attorney in Swaziland. In 1983, she moved to Zimbabwe, where she continued working as a prosecutor until 1989. That year, she went into private practice, and soon began specializing in human rights law. In one of her more notable cases, she successfully challenged a section of Zimbabwe's Private Voluntary Organizations Act which allowed a government minister the authority to dissolve or replace the board members of non-governmental organizations. She also challenged the results of 37 districts in the 2000 parliamentary elections. In a PBS documentary, Mtetwa described her motives for her activism as "not because there is any glory or cash to it and not because I'm trying to antagonize the government... I'm doing it because it's a job that's got to be done".

Mtetwa is particularly noted for her defense of arrested journalists, both local and international. In 2003, for example, she won a court order preventing the deportation of Guardian reporter Andrew Meldrum, presenting it to security officials at Harare International Airport only minutes before Meldrum's plane was scheduled to depart. She also won acquittals for detained reporters Toby Hamden and Julian Simmonds from London's Sunday Telegraph, who had been arrested during coverage of the April parliamentary election on charges of working without government accreditation. In April 2008, she secured the release of New York Times reporter Barry Bearak, who had been imprisoned on similar charges. She also defended many local journalists arrested in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election.

In 2003, Mtetwa was arrested on allegations of drunk driving.  At the police station, she was reportedly beaten and choked before being released three hours later without a formal charge. Though unable to speak for two days after the attack, she returned on the third day with a folder of medical evidence in order to file charges against the police officers who assaulted her. Police officers reportedly attacked Mtetwa again in 2007, beating her and three colleagues with rubber truncheons during a march protesting harassment of Zimbabwe's lawyers.

In an interview with the Committee to Protect Journalists, Mtetwa described her procedure for averting potential attacks:

"I think I confront the danger immediately before it happens. I always make sure that if, for instance, I'm called in the middle of the night to a scene that is potentially dangerous, I make sure that there are as many media practitioners as possible, particularly to record what will happen there. And in the glare of cameras I find that people don't want to do what they would want to do. So in a lot of ways I think I've been lucky, and I haven't received as much harassment as one would have expected, or as much as other human rights defenders have had."

In 2005, she won the Interantional Press Freedom Award of the Committed to Protect Journalists.  The award citation stated that "in a country where the law is used as a weapon against independent journalists, Mtetwa has defended journalists and argued for press freedom, all at great personal risk."  She also won the group's Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2008.

Mtetwa was also received several awards from legal organizations. In 2009, the European Bar Human Rights Institute awarded her the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize ("The award given by lawyers to a lawyer"), reserved each year to a lawyer who throughout his or her career has illustrated, by activity or suffering, the defense of human rights in the world.  Mtetwa also won the 2010 International Human Rights award of the American Bar Association.  In 2011, she was awarded the Inamori Ethics Prize by Case Western Reserve University in the United States.  And, most recently (2014), she was named a recipient of the International Women of Courage Award that is annually given out by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness and willingness to sacrifice for others, especially for better promotion of women's rights.  

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A01657 - Cecil Williams, Pastor for San Francisco's Glide Memorial Church

 

Cecil Williams, Whose San Francisco Church Became a Haven, Dies at 94

As the well-connected pastor of the Glide Memorial Church in the blighted Tenderloin district, he preached a “radically inclusive” gospel in serving people in need.

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The Rev. Cecil Williams at Glide Memorial Church. He was credited with revitalizing the church, which sits in the Tenderloin, one of San Francisco’s grittiest neighborhoods.Credit...Brian Flaherty for The New York Times

By Richard Sandomir

April 26, 2024

The Rev. Cecil Williams, a charismatic minister who turned a fading church in the gritty Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco into a vibrant hub of worship, activism and social services, died on Monday at his home in the city. He was 94.

His death was announced by the Glide Foundation, an offshoot of the Glide Memorial Church, which he transformed over the course of 60 years as its pastor and spiritual leader.

Mr. Williams preached the need to be “radically inclusive,” which he said meant creating a community to alleviate suffering and break the cycle of poverty.

“The reason this place is what it is, is that there are those of us who love unconditionally,” he said in a recorded sermon. “We don’t put no barriers up. Everybody is alike even though we’re different.”

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He added, “We’re going to break all of the barriers and let you know that we love you and accept you.”

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Mr. Williams preaching in about 1971. “The reason this place is what it is, is that there are those of us who love unconditionally,” he said in one sermon. “We don’t put no barriers up. Everybody is alike even though we’re different.”Credit...Robert Altman/Michael Ochs Archives, via Getty Images

That open door extended to people with drug addictions, the+- homeless, and the L.G.B.T.Q. community. He performed same-sex weddings decades before they were legalized in the United States.

“Cecil helped build the lesbian, gay and transgender movement,” Randy Shaw, the executive director of the nonprofit Tenderloin Housing Clinic and author of “The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime, and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco” (2015), said in an interview. “At the same time that police were arresting gays and lesbians in bars, they had a home at Glide.”

Mr. Williams was a whirlwind inside and outside the church. He was a founder of the ministerial Council on Religion and the Homosexual in 1964 and welcomed to the church groups like Huckleberry’s for Runaways and the National Sex Forum. He hosted events for the Black Panthers and in 1970 lobbied to free Angela Davis, the leftist activist and professor, who had been imprisoned on charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. (She was acquitted in 1972.)

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Mr. Williams appeared with the political activist Angela Davis in 1974 in a panel discussion at the church. Years earlier he lobbied for her release from prison.Credit...Janet Fries/Getty Images

He made Glide a home to the antiwar movement and was chairman of Citizens Alert, a 24-hour hotline for people who had been harassed or beaten by the police, especially those in marginalized communities.

In 1974, Mr. Williams acted as an intermediary between the family of Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army, the radical group that had kidnapped her.

Fifteen years later, he convened a conference to find solutions to the crack cocaine epidemic that was devastating the Black community.

“We’ve been through slavery, but this is a new kind of slavery,” he told The Oakland Tribune in 1989. “I’ve seen on the streets how our brothers and sisters are suffering. We’re here today to pick up the pieces.”

With his wife, Janice Mirikitani (who was the poet-laureate of San Francisco from 2000 to 2002), Mr. Williams built Glide into a citadel of social services that include free meals, child care, and H.I.V. and hepatitis C testing; an intervention program for battering cases and another to help women recover from various kinds of trauma; a legal clinic; and a walk-in center for those in need of housing, hygienic help and emotional support.

The Glide Foundation has also built 52 units of low-income federal housing near the church, in partnership with another foundation.

“The true church,” Mr. Williams told USA Today in 1995, “stays on the edge of life, where the real moans and groans are.”

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Mr. Williams monitored a grocery giveaway program at the church in 2007. “Someone’s going to be the reverend in this family, and you’re it,” he recalled his mother telling him when he was a child.Credit...Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle, via Getty Images

Albert Cecil Williams was born on Sept. 22, 1929, in San Angelo, a segregated city in central Texas. His father, Cuney Earl Williams, was a janitor at a white church, and his mother, Sylvia Lizzie Best, was a teacher who later owned an employment agency. His maternal grandfather had been enslaved.

His mother told Cecil early on that he was going to be a minister. By some accounts, she nicknamed him “Rev” when he was as young as 2 years old.

“Someone’s going to be the reverend in this family, and you’re it,” he recalled her saying in a joint memoir with Ms. Mirikitani, “Beyond the Possible: 50 Years of Creating Radical Change in a Community Called Glide” (2013).

At 12, he had a terrifying nervous breakdown that was caused, he wrote, by “the contrast between my family telling me I was the ‘Rev’” and actions by white people that “confirmed I was powerless.” When he recovered, he focused on becoming a minister and leading a church that would embrace people of every color.

Mr. Williams received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Huston-Tillotson College (now University) in Austin, Texas, in 1952. That year, with four other Black students, he integrated the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He graduated in 1955.

Over the next eight years, he served as a pastor at churches in Hobbs, N.M., and Kansas City, Mo.; was an instructor at Huston-Tillotson; and studied at the University of Texas, Austin, as well as at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif.

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Mr. Williams in 1965, just two years after being appointed to the church, which had been struggling. He revamped it, adding a choir and live house band.Credit...Barney Peterson/San Francisco Chronicle, via Getty Images

In 1963, when he was appointed to Glide — then a part of the United Methodist Church — Mr. Williams knew that people referred to the Tenderloin as “the last circle of hell,” with its many homeless, poor and troubled people, its flophouses and its brothels.

Yet, he wrote, as he walked through that downtown neighborhood for the first time, he had a different vision: “I saw the most blessed place on earth.”

Mr. Williams made changes at the church, which had been a conservatively run institution founded as the Glide Memorial Evangelistic Center in 1929 by Lizzie Glide, the wife of a wealthy cattleman. (The name was changed to the Glide Memorial Methodist Church in 1939.) He removed all the crosses from the sanctuary as a message to emphasize life, not death. “We must all be the cross,” he said.

A compelling speaker, Mr. Williams added a rollicking choir and a house band. He boosted membership from double figures into the thousands. Along the way, he became one of the most prominent religious figures in San Francisco, through his social programs and fund-raising. He had “a personal relationship with super-wealthy people,” Mr. Shaw said.

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Mr. Williams, right, walked arm in arm in 1986 with Willie Brown, the speaker of the California Assembly at the time (and a future mayor of San Francisco) and Mayor Dianne Feinstein in a march honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. Williams was a prominent figure in the city. Credit...Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

Mr. Williams worked with Dianne Feinstein during her tenure as the city’s mayor, from 1978 to 1988, and was a friend to his fellow San Franciscan Nancy Pelosi, the future House speaker, who after his death praised him as a “spiritual giant.”

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Nancy Pelosi, a fellow San Franciscan, was House speaker when she appeared with Mr. Williams at his church in 2010. After his death, she called him a “spiritual giant.”Credit...Tony Avelar/Associated Press

Glide raised more than $50 million through annual auctions of lunches with the billionaire investor Warren Buffett, including $19 million in 2022, his last. (Mr. Buffett’s wife, Susie, had tipped off her husband to the church’s myriad good works.)

Mr. Williams is survived by his daughter, Kim Williams, and his son, Albert Jr., both from his marriage to Evelyn Robinson, which ended in divorce in 1976; a stepdaughter, Tianne Feliciano; three grandchildren; and one step-grandson.

Ms. Mirikitani took a job at Glide as a temporary typist in 1965 and rose to church program director and became president of the Glide Foundation in 1982, the year she and Mr. Williams were married. She died in 2021.

Mr. Williams retired as pastor in 2000 but remained the church’s spiritual leader in other roles and chief executive of the foundation. He formally stepped away from the church last year.

Marvin K. White, the church’s minister of celebration, or senior minister, said in an interview that Mr. Williams’s physical decline over the last decade had served as something of a message to the congregation.

“When I came here as an intern, he was able-bodied and wandered the pews,” Mr. White said. “Then he was on a cane, and he took up less space. And then he used a walker, and I had to help him stand up. He was visibly wobbly, and the congregation would lean forward as if he was going to fall. Then he was in his final shape, in a wheelchair.

“Every time he stepped back and made himself smaller,” Mr. White said, “he asked us to fill in the space.”