Delme Cupido joined Natural Justice in June 2021 as the Hub Director for the Southern Africa team. He is a human rights lawyer with more than 18 years’ experience in the advancement of human rights and governance in southern Africa, as a human rights and public interest lawyer, activist and grant maker in the non-profit sector.
He began his legal career at the Legal Assistance Centre, a public interest law firm in Namibia where he worked in the Human Rights and Constitutional Litigation Unit working on a range of cases, including serious human rights violations against indigenous communities. While at the LAC, he went on to head the AIDS Law Unit, leading their work on the campaign to ensure the provision of ARV’s for people living with HIV or AIDS, working on national, Pan-African and global campaigns.
In 2011, Delme started the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Programme at the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, where he worked extensively with indigenous communities, organization and networks in Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Delme has worked extensively with the issues and communities which Natural Justice is concerned with, particularly indigenous and local peoples in southern Africa, and has a long and close connection with the organization, and a deep commitment to the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities who face the brunt of the onslaught against nature and the environments that sustain them.
