Politics of Lesotho takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy,whereby the Prime Minister of Lesotho is the head of government,and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of Parliament,the Senate and the National Assembly. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Letsie III is King of Lesotho. He succeeded his father,Bereng Seeiso Moshoeshoe II,who was forced into exile in 1990. His father was briefly restored in 1995 but died in a car crash in early 1996,and Letsie became king again. As a constitutional monarch,most of King Letsie's duties as monarch of Lesotho are ceremonial. In 2000,he declared HIV/AIDS in Lesotho to be a natural disaster,prompting immediate national and international response to the epidemic.
Patricia Ann McGowan Wald was an American lawyer and jurist who served as the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1986 until 1991. She was the Court's first female chief judge and its first woman to be elevated,having been appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. From 1999 to 2001,Wald was a Justice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Kellelo Justina Mafoso-Guni is a Mosotho lawyer,the first female lawyer in Lesotho,as well as a former justice of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and the High Court of Lesotho.
Susan Mary Kiefel is an Australian lawyer and barrister who was the 13th Chief Justice of Australia from 2017 to 2023. She concurrently served on the High Court of Australia from 2007 to 2023,previously being a judge of both the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Federal Court of Australia. Kiefel is the first woman to serve in the position of Chief Justice.
Fatou Bom Bensouda is a Gambian lawyer and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC),who has served as the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom since 3 August 2022.
Laetitia Eulalia Mary Mukasa Kikonyogo,was a Ugandan lawyer and judge. Prior to her retirement from the bench,she was a member of the Court of Appeal of Uganda,which also doubles as Uganda's Constitutional Court. While there,she served at the rank of Deputy Chief Justice of Uganda. Her first name is sometimes spelled as Leticia or as Letitia.
Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations,which includes lawyers,paralegals,prosecutors,judges,legal scholars,law professors and law school deans.
Carolyn Wright-Sanders is an American lawyer,jurist and a former Chief Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas,serving in that position from November 17,2009 to December 31,2018.
Meagan Aileen Flynn is an American judge who is the chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. She previously served as a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals from 2014 to 2017. Flynn was appointed to the state’s supreme court by the Governor Kate Brown in March 2017.
Mandisa Muriel Lindelwa Maya is the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa. She was formerly the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2017 to 2022. She joined the bench in May 2000 as a judge of the Transkei Division of the High Court of South Africa and was elevated to the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2006.
Rhonda K. Wood is an American lawyer who has served as an associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court since 2015. She previously served as a judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals from 2013 to 2014,and as a trial court judge for the Arkansas 20th Judicial Circuit from 2007 to 2012.
Ntšeliseng ’Masechele Khaketla was a pioneering poet,dramatist,translator,and teacher from Lesotho.
Solome Balungi Bossa is a Ugandan judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC). Prior to her election to the ICC,she was a member of the Court of Appeal in Uganda,which also doubles as the Constitutional Court in the Judiciary of Uganda. She was elected to a nine-year term on 5 December 2017 and was sworn in on 9 March 2018. Previously she was appointed to a six-year term on the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights in 2014.
Nemat Abdullah Mohamed Khair is a Sudanese judge of the Sudanese Supreme Court who became Chief Justice of Sudan on 10 October 2019 until 15 May 2021. As such,under Article 29.(3) of the August 2019 Draft Constitutional Declaration,she is also the president of the Supreme Court of Sudan and is "responsible for administering the judicial authority before the Supreme Judicial Council." Khair is the first woman Chief Justice of Sudan.
Elizabeth Ibanda-Nahamya was a Ugandan lawyer and judge,who,on 22 March 2018,was appointed Judge of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT). The appointment by António Guterres,the Secretary General of the United Nations,was in replacement to the MICT,following the resignation of Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa,who was elected to the International Criminal Court. Before that,she sat on the High Court of Uganda,where she was assigned to the International Crimes Division of that court.
Susan Okalany is a Ugandan lawyer and judge who sits on the High Court of Uganda. Before she was appointed to the bench,she was a principal state attorney in the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
Capital punishment in Lesotho is legal. However,despite not having any official death penalty moratorium in place,the country has not carried out any executions since the 1990s and is therefore considered de facto abolitionist.
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