NOZIZWE DUBE

PhD candidate in EU law (Maastricht University)

Recognised student, Oxford University (Trinity term 2025)

Master of Laws (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

Bachelor of Laws (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

I am a PhD candidate in EU law in the Department of International Law of Maastricht University. In my PhD project, I conduct a critical race feminist analysis of EU equality law, with the normative aim of formulating recommendations on how intersectional discrimination can be acknowledged in this legal framework. To this end, my research encompasses comparative research with the jurisprudence of the Council of Europe (the European Court of Human Rights and the European Committee on Social Rights); the US Supreme Court, and the Constitutional Court of South Africa

I am a Bachelor and Master of Laws graduate (KU Leuven). As part of the Erasmus+ programme, I studied at Venice International University (Italy) in the Globalization Programme, during which I received an award for academic excellence. Throughout my legal studies, I specialised in International and European Union law and Public law. My masters thesis was titled: ‘The restitution of colonial collections in Belgium: A solution from the human right to culture?’. This thesis explores the classification of colonial collections within Belgian and EU private law and elaborates on how the regimes of inalienability and imprescriptibility pose challenges to indigenous communities in the Global South who may wish to request the restitution of these goods. It subsequently explores whether the human right to culture is a viable avenue for indigenous communities in the Global South to pursue the restitution of their plundered cultural heritage.

I was born in Zimbabwe, and moved to Belgium to be reunited with my mother at the age of fourteen. I am the former president of the Flemish Youth Council, a 3 year mandate in which I advocated for the rights of all young people in Brussels and Flanders. The topics I worked on range from the right to vote for 16- and 17-year olds, mental health of young people, poverty among children and young people, adequate reception and accomodation of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in the EU and Belgium, and sustainable work for young people.

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awards

Honourable Mention, Ius Commune Prize (2025)

• Title of submitted article: “A Typology of Comparators and Comparisons in EU Equality Law”, Common Market Law Review, 62(1), 49-85.
• Awarding institution: Ius Commune Research School

One of the 12 Faces of Science (2023)

• Awarding institution: Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW)

Award for Academic Excellence (2021)

• Awarding institution: Venice International University (Italy)

Young European of 2017

• Reason for award: my youth rights and human rights advocacy, particularly for (young) refugees within the EU
• Awarding institution: Schwarzkopf Stiftung

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MY expertise

• EU law
• Equality law (EU, Council of Europe, South Africa, United States of America
• European fundamental rights law
• Critical Race Feminism, Critical Race Theory, Feminist Legal Theory
• Intersectionality
• International human rights law
• Belgian Public Law

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My skills

• LinkedIn
• Bluesky
• YouTube
• Instagram
• WordPress