Mr. Obiora C. Okafor, former Independent Expert (2017-2023)

Professor Obiora C. Okafor was appointed by the Human Rights Council as the independent expert on human rights and international solidarity in June 2017. He assumed his functions on 1 August 2017 until 31 October 2023.

Mr. Okafor is the Edward B. Burling Chair in International Law and Institutions at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, USA.

He is also a former Chairperson of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. Mr. Okafor is also the General Editor of the international journal, the Transnational Human Rights Review, and editorial board member of a number of other academic journals around the world.

He has held the Gani Fawehinmi Distinguished Chair in Human Rights Law at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, and served as a Visiting Professor at a number of universities and institutes around the world.

He was conferred the Award of Academic Excellence of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers in 2010 and the Gold Medal for Exceptional Research and Major Contributions to Jurisprudence of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in 2013.