Rui Baltazar dos Santos Alves (1933 – 13 July 2024) was a Mozambican lawyer, politician and academic who was an active supporter of FRELIMO during the Mozambican War of Independence.
Baltazar was born in Lourenço Marques (today Maputo) to a Portuguese Mozambican family.
During colonial rule, he used his position as an attorney to defend political prisoners of the Portuguese authorities, and upon independence was appointed the first Minister of Justice of People's Republic of Mozambique.
In April 1986, he became rector of Eduardo Mondlane University, where he taught human rights law.
[1] In 1994, Baltazar was nominated as the Mozambican ambassador to Sweden, Denmark, and Norway and in 2002 became special advisor to the President of the SADC.