Matsaseng Ralekoala
Director of Research.
Matsaseng Ralekoala is a researcher, lawyer and human rights activist originating from Lesotho, based in Limerick, Ireland. He is a PhD candidate at the University of Limerick, and also a teaching assistant under the school of law in the same university. His research is on evaluating the effectiveness of non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council on the preservation of global peace and security using Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland and Rwanda as comparators. He practised law for many years in Lesotho and South Africa. He is also a coach of public speaking and debates with vast experience that spans over many years. He has been a debater himself, an adjudicator and a coach of public speaking, having attended various World Universities Debating Championships in Canada, Thailand and several workshops in Singapore, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, and Germany, to mention but a few. In 2023, he coached the All-Ireland Universities Global Health Debates Competition held in Dublin, where he coached around 50 students from various universities in Ireland on sustainable development goals motions. In October 2024, he was part of the training for the EuroSopoBox Public Speaking Competition. Matsaseng arrived in Ireland as an international protection applicant in 2022.
Matsaseng is the awardee of the Education category by the International Decade of People of African Descent in Ireland, powered by Dublin South City Partnership in 2024. He was also part of the team of peer researchers that conducted Access to Justice for International Protection Applicants, conducted by Doras. He is currently part of a research team that is probing the conditions of accommodation within temporary accommodation centres for international protection applicants with 2 Professors from the University of Galway.
