Justice Paula da Conceição Machatine Honwana was appointed a Judge of the Residual Special Court in January 2024.
From 2011-2014, and again from 2020-2022, she served as a Judge of the Superior Court of Appeals in Mozambique. From 2014 to 2020, she served as Legal Adviser to the President of the Supreme Court of Mozambique. Since 1998 she has served as a Judge in Mozambique in various capacities, in Civil and Labour Divisions of the First Instance Court, and from 2001-2011 was Secretary-General of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, the management and disciplinary board of the Mozambican judiciary.
Justice Machatine Honwana was a member of the Review Committee of the Statute of Mozambican Judges, the Legal Framework of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, and other legal instruments linked to the judiciary.
She has taught law at the Higher Institute of Sciences and Technology of Mozambique (ISCTEM), and at the Centre of Judicial and Judiciary Training in Maputo, Mozambique. She co-authored the book Manual de Formação e Apoio ao Magistrado Judicial em Matéria de Criminalidade Contra a Vida Selvagem (Training and Support Handbook for Judges on Wildlife Crime) in 2022, and has authored a number of articles and academic papers.
Since 2022 Justice Machatine Honwana has served as Legal Adviser at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Mozambique to the United Nations in New York.
Justice Machatine Honwana received a Degree Graduate “Licenciatura” in Law in 1997 from the Faculty of Law at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. In 2017 she earned a Master’s degree in Public and International Law at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and in 2021 she received a Postgraduate degree in International Contract Law from Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique.
Amongst others, she has received professional training in Public International Law at The Hague Academy of International Law, in The Netherlands, at the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Laxenburg, Austria, and at the Judicial Institute for Africa (JIFA), University of Cape Town, South Africa.
She is a member of the Mozambican Judge’s Association, Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association, and Mozambican Association of Women Judges.