Last week, 91ɫ law Professor Obiora Okafor was elected to the advisory committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The Nigerian-born professor brings his expertise in international law, human rights law, and immigration and refugee law, especially as it relates to Africa, to the .
“The committee is the think tank of the Human Rights Council,” says . “It’s where the thinking begins.” He sees participating on the committee as a form of public service and an opportunity to make an impact at a relatively high level.
Okafor (left) was nominated by Nigeria to represent Africa on the 18-person committee for the next three years. The Geneva-based committee meets twice a year.
The son of an Ibo lawyer concerned about social justice, Okafor studied, practised and taught law in Nigeria before coming to Canada. He won a scholarship to the University of British Columbia, earned two graduate degrees and joined Osgoode Hall Law School in 2000.
“Human rights gave me a language and framework for expressing my concerns about social justice,” says Okafor.
At Osgoode, the award-winning teacher lectures on international human rights law, human rights in Africa and the international law of south-north relations.
His most recent research projects include a study of human rights activism in Nigeria and a comparison of refugee rights in Canada and the United States post 9/11.
He is also affiliated with 91ɫ’s Centre for Refugee Studies, the Harriet Tubman Institute and the Graduate Program in Socio-Legal Studies.
Okafor has served as an expert panellist for the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent and a human rights consultant for the British Department for International Development. He has been a visiting scholar at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and in Harvard Law School's Human Rights Program.
“I’m interested in a full range of issues, but the preponderance of my work is on human rights in Africa,” he says.
He has written three books: The African Human Rights System, Activist Forces and International Institutions (Cambridge University Press, 2007); Legitimizing Human Rights NGOs: Lessons from Nigeria (Africa World Press, 2006); and Re-Defining Legitimate Statehood (Martinus Nijhoff, 2000).
He has also co-edited three books: Legitimate Governance in Africa: International and Domestic Legal Perspectives (Kluwer, 1999); Humanizing Our Global Order: Essays in Honour of Ivan Head (University of Toronto Press, 2003); and The Third World and International Order: Law, Politics and Globalization (Martinus Nijhoff, 2003).