Dr Esther Gumboh

Esther Gumboh is a senior lecturer in the Department of Criminal and Procedural Law at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa, where she teaches International Criminal Law. Courtesy of the Africa Oxford Visiting Fellowship Programme, she is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford.

Esther holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town for a thesis titled 'The impact of the Bill of Rights on punishment in Malawi'. Her research focuses on criminal justice and human rights. A member of the Golden Key International Honour Society, she is the recipient of several awards including the University Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship (University of Cape Town); the Fox International Fellowship (Yale University); and the Manuel and Luby Washkansky Merit Award. 

During her time in Oxford, Esther will focus on the death penalty in Commonwealth Africa. Relying on emerging jurisprudence on discretionary capital sentencing, her project will ascertain the extent to which the abolition of the mandatory death penalty has limited the imposition of death sentences. This research will contribute to global discourse on sentencing practices in retentionist countries that have taken an initial step to abolition by introducing discretion in the imposition of the death penalty.