Prof. Fareda Banda (Zimbabwe)
Fareda Banda is a Professor of Law focusing on human rights, especially the rights of women, the laws of Commonwealth Africa and English Family Law. She holds a PhD in Law, and teaches Human Rights of Women, Law and Society in Africa, and Family Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She also does external teaching for Oxford (M.St. in Human Rights), Onati, Pretoria, NYU, Oslo, Cambridge, LSE and Zimbabwe. She has also worked extensively with human rights organizations and the United Nations, notably UN Women and OHCHR for which she has done a lot of consultancies. Fareda Banda has done extensive research on human rights, notably the rights of women. She has a wide range of publications on women’s rights, family law, and, more recently, religion. She sits on the editorial or advisory boards of eight journals and has been Editor in Chief of the Journal of African Law.
Prof. Rachel Murray (UK)
Rachel Murray is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Bristol. Her specialist areas are human rights in Africa, particularly the African Charter and its Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Organization of African Unity/African Union. She has written widely in this area, including books with Hart Publishing and Cambridge University Press (Human Rights in Africa, from Organization of African Unity to African Union, Cambridge, 2004; The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The System at Work, with Malcolm Evans, Cambridge, 2008; The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and International Law, Hart Publishing, 2000), and articles in leading legal human rights journals. She also advises organisations and individuals on how to use the African human rights system, including drafting cases and participating in its meetings. She is on the editorial board of a number of journals including the Journal of African Law and African Journal of International and Comparative Law. Her other area of interest is national human rights institutions (The Role of National Human Rights Institutions at the International and Regional Levels, Hart Publishing, 2007). She holds and directs two major grants with the AHRC. The first is to evaluate the role of national preventive mechanisms under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture. The second examines the implementation of human rights standards and the role of soft law. She is a member of the Board of the human rights organisation, Interights, a Fellow of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex and a member of the AHRC’s Peer Review College. She studied law at the University of Leicester. She has worked at the Queen’s University, Belfast, where she was also Assistant Director of the Human Rights Centre, and at Birkbeck College at the University of London. She was appointed Lecturer at Bristol in 2003, Reader in 2004, and Professor in 2006.
Mr. Hassan Shire (Somalia/ Canada)
Mr. Hassan Shire Sheikh is a Somali-Canadian Pan-African human rights defender who was forced to flee his native Somalia. In 2005, Mr. Shire Sheikh founded the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project. In 2005, he became the elected Chairperson of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (EHAHRDN) and currently serves his second term (2011-2016). For a number of years, Hassan has served as the coordinator of the African Human Rights Defenders Project at Centre for Refugee Studies, York University, Canada. He also engages actively with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, UN Human Rights Council and Community of Democracies. In addition, he is an active member of the World Movement for Democracy, and is an Advisory Council member of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) focused in Political Science and Government from Delhi University, and a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Economics from J.M.I University, New Delhi.
Dr. Martin Semalulu Nsibirwa (South Africa)
Mr. Nsibirwa works with the South African Human Rights Commission. He was one-time Programme Manager of the LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. He also served as the member of the Editorial team for the African Human Rights Law Journal and the Faculty of Law LLM Committee. Mr Nsibirwa is a human rights lawyer with particular expertise on the African human rights system. He occasionally lectures on human rights issues and has authored and published several articles on women’s rights and gender issues. He has also ample experience in management, programme planning and execution and cultivating partnerships with relevant institutions across Africa.
Janet Sallah-Njie (The Gambia) – Former Board Chair
Ms Sallah-Njie is a leading Gambian legal practitioner and women’s rights advocate as Founding President of the legal aid organization Female Lawyers Association of The Gambia (FLAG). She has invested over two decades in practice, and runs her law firm Torodo Chambers as well as various initiatives promoting human rights, including offering legal advice on a voluntary basis to West Africa Public Interest Litigation Centre (WAPILC), Girl Guides Association of The Gambia, FAWEGAM, The Francis Degaulle Njie Foundation in The Gambia. A former vice-Chair of the Gambia Bar Association, African Centre on Democracy and Human Rights Studies (ACDHRS) among others. She also serves on the Boards of ActionAid International The Gambia (Board Chair), and was one-time Vice president for Gambia Bar Association. Ms Sallah-Njie has also worked as Solicitor-General of The Gambia (1998-2000). She is married with four children.
Katherine Mulhern (United Kingdom) – Former Vice Chair
Katherine has been in private practice for twenty years and was until recently a senior partner in a large international law firm. Her practice includes representing large development and trade banks, governments, foundations and non-governmental organizations on a variety of matters, including corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. She has also represented individual clients seeking political asylum in both administrative and judicial venues in a variety of jurisdictions. Katherine, who has a J.D. and an M.A. in human rights and international law from Columbia University, currently serves on the boards of several non-governmental organizations, not-for-profits, and foundations.
Hassan B Jallow (The Gambia)
In 1982, Mr Jallow was appointed Solicitor General of The Gambia, from 1984 – 1994 he was appointed as Attorney General and Minister of Justice of The Gambia. In 1998 he was appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Gambia. Also in 1998 he was appointed as an International Legal Expert of the United Nations. In 2002 he was appointed as a Judge of the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court of Sierra Leone. Since 2003 he has been the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
Sheri Rosenberg (United States of America) -RIP
Sheri Rosenberg of blessed memory passed away on 22nd May, 2015. She held a B.A. from New York University, a J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and an LL.M. Columbia University.
She was Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights and Genocide Clinic & Program in Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Cardozo School of Law. She worked in the areas of civil rights and international human rights with a specific focus on issues of discrimination, equality, and genocide.
In 2000, the U.S. Department of State selected Professor Rosenberg to work for the Human Rights Chamber, a quasi-international court established under the Dayton Peace Agreement, in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Before coming to Cardozo, she was awarded a Human Rights Fellowship at Columbia Law School, where she worked for the United Nations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Policy Branch, and completed her LL.M with honors.
Her research interests included equality and non-discrimination in international law, minority rights, refugee law, transitional justice and genocide prevention. She had recently published Responsibility to Protect: A Framework for Prevention, Global Responsibility to Protect 1:4 442-477 (2009); Promoting Equality after Genocide, 16 Tul. J. In’t L 329-393 (2008) and What’s Law Got to do With It? The Bosnia v. Serbia Decision’s Impact on Reconciliation, 61 Rutgers L Rev 131-159 (2008). She spoke widely about, and trained government officials on issues related to the law and mass atrocity.
Alpha Fall (Senegal) Member (2006-2012) – RIP
Alpha Fall, a co-founder of IHRDA, was its Executive Director from 2003 to 2005. A law graduate from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, he also held an LL.M from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. He worked at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights before co-founding IHRDA. He worked with the International Centre for Transitional Justice in Kinshasa and was, at the time of his untimely passing on 21 April 2011, Head of Transitional Justice Unit, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bujumbura.
See
Alpha Fall Honoured at NGO Forum and 49th African Commission Session
See also
Julieta Mendes (Guinea Bissau)Vice Chairperson (2005-2008) (2008-2011)
Dr Mendes is the SOS Kinderdorf International Regional Educational Adviser for North/West Africa, based in The Gambia. A social economist, she previously held different government positions in Guinea Bissau.
Amie Bensouda (The Gambia) Chairperson (2005-2008)(2008-2011)
Ms. Bensouda is a former Solicitor-General of The Gambia. She is currently the Managing Partner of Amie Bensouda & Co and has also served as the President of the Gambia Bar Association.
Sandra Liebenberg (South Africa) – Member (2008-2011)
Prof. Liebenberg currently holds the H.F. Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law in the Law Faculty of the University of Stellenbosch. She studied law at the University of Cape Town and the University of Essex. She is admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa. She served in the Technical Committee advising the Constitutional Assembly on the Bill of Rights in the 1996 Constitution of South Africa. She founded and directed the Socio-Economic Rights Project based at the Community Law Centre (University of the Western Cape). She was involved in the Centre’s amicus curiae interventions in groundbreaking cases. She is on the editorial board of the South African Journal on Human Rights, the African Human Rights Law Journal, and Speculum Juris.
Abdoulie Barry (The Gambia)
Mr Barry is the Head of Finance at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratories in The Gambia. He holds an MBA from the Manchester Business School and is a graduate of the Association of Certified and Chartered Accountants. He has special interest in Information Technology as it relates to accounting systems and is a Microsoft Certified Professional.
Cheikh Saad Bouh Kamara (Mauritania)
A professor of sociology at University of Nouakchott, Cheikh Saad Bouh Kamara holds a PhD from University of Montpellier, France. A prominent Mauritanian human rights defender, he co-founded several human rights organisations, including Association Mauritanienne de Defense des Droits de l’Homme (AMDH), Comité Nationale de Lutte pour l’Eradication des Séquelles de l’Esclavage en Mauritanie (CNESEM) and SOS Esclaves and has served as President of the first two in the 1990s. In 1998, his work against slavery won him arbitrary arrest, detention incommunicado and a conviction by the then repressive military regime, as well as an invitation to the Board of the United Nations Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. He was also awarded the Anti-Slavery International Award in 1998.
He served on the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) during Mauritania’s first transition to democracy (2005-2007), and also during its second transition in 2009 as its President between April and July 2009. He currently serves on the board of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
Maryam Uwais (Nigeria) (2007-2008)
Ms Uwais has served as Special Rapporteur for the Rights of the Child at the Nigeria Human Rights Commission and is currently a member of the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
Shirin Aumeeruddy-Cziffra (Mauritius) (2001-2007)
Ms Aumeeruddy-Cziffra is currently Ombudsperson for Children in Mauritius.
Julia Dolly Joiner (The Gambia) (2008)
Commissioner for Political Affairs with the African Union.
Bronwen Manby (South Africa) (2007)
Senior Programme Adviser at the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) at the Open Society Institute.
Lamin Sanyang (The Gambia) (2007)
U. Oji Umozurike (Nigeria) (2007)
Professor of Law at the Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria. Prof. Umozurike is a member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights where he served as Chair. He has served as a member of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission.
Olisa Agbakoba (Nigeria)
Vera Duarte Lobo de Pina (Cape Verde)
Justice de Pina is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Cape Verde. She has also as member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights ().
Dinah Shelton (United States of America)
Prof. Shelton is on the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Human Rights Strasbourg, France) and has taught and written extensively on international human rights law.
Fatsah Ouguergouz (Algeria) (2006)
Judge Ouguergouz serves on the bench of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. He has previously served as Secretary for Legal Matters of the International Court of Justice at the Hague. An erudite jurist, he has also served as Associate Editor, African Yearbook of International Law; UN Independent Human Rights Expert on Burundi; Professor of International Law at the University of Genevaand sits on the International Editorial Advisory Board of the African Human Rights Law Journal.
Raymond Sock (The Gambia) (2005)
Mr Sock is the former Director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in Banjul. He was an attorney with a constitutional law practice in The Gambia. He is a former Solicitor General and Legal Secretary of The Gambia and has authored of several articles on human rights issues in Africa.
Claude Welch (United States of America)
Prof. Welch is a political scientist. He has written on the African human rights system and the development of civil society in Africa. He serves on the advisory council of Human Rights Watch/Africa.
Bacre Waly Ndiaye(Senegal) (2006)
Bacre Ndiaye is currently Director of the Human Rights Council and Treaties Division of the Office of the Human Rights for Human Rights.
Khadija Elmadmad (Morocco)
Prof. Elmadmad is currently UNESCO Chair on Human Rights and Migration and an Advisor to AfriMAP.
Katerina Tomasevski (late)(2004)
Abdullahi An-Na’im (Sudan)
Adbullahi An-Na’im Professor of Law at the Emory University in Atlanta. He has published extensively on human rights and Islamic law.
Anthony Appiah (Ghana)
Wolfgang Beredek
Sheila B. Keetharuth (Mauritius)
Dr Aristide Nononsi – (Benin)
Dr Aristide Nononsi is associate member of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP) of Mc Gill University, Montreal. Before joining IHRDA, Aristide was the Executive Director of the Centre for Developing Area Studies (CDAS) in the Faculty of Arts at Mc Gill University, Montreal Canada and Senior Boulton Fellow in International Development and the Law from 2007 to 2011. He has taught and published on issues surrounding fragile States, international development law, the law of international organisations, human rights, children’s rights, and international labour law at Mc Gill Faculty of Law.
Aristide has also served as Executive Secretary of the Staff Appeals Committee and Head of the Appeals Committee Unit (APCU) in the African Development Bank (AfDB) from 1999 to 2007. He has worked for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on child labour and children’s rights, international labour standards, and maritime labour law in Switzerland, Côte d’Ivoire and Algeria from 1993 to 1999. Aristide holds a doctorate in law from Université Montesquieu Bordeaux, France, as well as two Master of Arts degrees, one in political science from Science Po Bordeaux and the other in Law from Université Bordeaux I, France.
