John is a Senior Governance Officer at African Union Commission (AUC), Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security. He’s the current Chair of the ATJLF Advisory Committee.

Sarah is Head of Office of the and an Advocate of Courts of Judicature in Uganda. She has extensive experience and training in gender and the law, international law, transitional justice, and constitutional law and over nine years of experience working in the field of human rights and transitional justice.

Sarah has provided technical advice and capacity on a broad range of transitional themes to state and non-state actors, and undertaken research on international justice, gender justice, and transitional justice.

Before joining ICTJ, Sarah served as a senior program officer with the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA Uganda), where she worked to advance access to justice for vulnerable women and children.

In 2008, she was awarded the Open Society Justice Initiative Fellowship. Sarah holds an LL.M. in International Human Rights Law from the Central European University in Budapest, an LL.B. (Hons) from Makerere University, and a postgraduate diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre.

Kole is the Director of the MacArthur Foundation’s Nigeria Office in Abuja and Co-Director of the On Nigeria Big Bet. Earlier at MacArthur Foundation, he was responsible for grantmaking in Population & Reproductive Health, Girls Secondary Education, Human Rights and International Justice, and the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa.

Prior to joining the MacArthur Foundation in 1999, Shettima taught at the University of Maiduguri, the University of Toronto, and at Ohio University. He volunteered for several organizations including the Inter-Church Coalition on Africa, Women In Nigeria, and Machina Emirate Development Association.

He has published in several academic journals including Africa Development, Review of African Political Economy, African Studies Review, and Journal of Asian and African Studies. Dr Shettima has a PhD from the University of Toronto, a Master’s degree from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and his undergraduate degree is from the University of Maiduguri.

He sits on the board of several organizations including the Center for Democracy and Development, JAIZ Charity and Development Foundation, and Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, among others.

Godfrey O. Odongo is a Senior Program Officer with the Human Rights Program at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, a private grant making foundation based in New York and Washington D.C. In this role he manages funding portfolios and partnerships that support increased capacities of ecosystems of civil society organizations advancing human rights norms and social change. He was visiting research fellow (2020-21) at the Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program. Odongo has previously served as a regional research expert with Amnesty International’s International Secretariat; in a program advisory role with Save the Children-Sweden and research fellowship roles with the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

An advocate of the High Court of Kenya, since 2003, he holds a doctorate (PhD) in international human rights law from the University of the Western Cape, an LLM in Human Rights and Democratization in Africa from the University of Pretoria, a bachelor’s degree in law (LLB) from Moi University, Kenya and a postgraduate diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law.  He is the author of several peer-reviewed book chapters, journal articles and research reports on a range of human rights issues particularly socio-economic and children’s human rights from an African perspective.

Fatou is a jurist, a dedicated human rights advocate and development practitioner with over 20 years of experience in the non-profit sector. She founded ARTICLE 19’s West Africa office in Senegal in 2010 after joining the organization in 2002 as an Africa Programme Officer in South Africa. For more than a decade, she oversaw the work of the organisation in West Africa.

She led ARTICLE 19’ work with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) on the adoption of the declaration of a declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa and the establishment of mechanism of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression in Africa in 2004. She has contributed to many standards settings advocated and litigated on behalf of journalists and human rights defenders. She has provided technical assistance to governments on human rights, reform of media law policies and freedom of expression and access to information in many parts of the African Continent.

Prior to ARTICLE 19, she worked for the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and developed programmes for the judiciary and legal practitioners in the Gambia.

She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Gambia Radio and Televisions Services (GRTS), Chair of the Africa Freedom of Information Center (AFIC), Project Advisory Board member for the Migration and Sustainable Development in the Gambia (MSDG). She is also a Steering Committee Member for CICODEV Africa, Member of the Governing Board of the Pan African Network of Human Rights defenders and founding member of AfrikaJom Center.

She recently founded the Center for Women Rights and Leadership in the Gambia (CWRL) to foster women’s rights and political participation.

She holds an (LLM) in Economic and Communication Law, a Master’s Degree in International and European Law, a Bachelors of Law (civil law) at the University of Toulouse, Capitole and a Bachelor of English Language Specialty Law, at the Institute for languages and Civilisations and a degree in international relations and development studies.

She received many distinctions for her human rights work: these include, the French National Order of Merit (Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite) in 2018, the Shield Awards for West Africa by the Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network in 2019, the Press Freedom hero by the Gambia Press Union in 2020 and the Deyda Hydara Award in 2021.

She is a regular media commentator and analyst on human’s rights.

Senior Program Officer, On Nigeria. Yvonne served in a variety of Program Management positions in international NGOs and multi-lateral organizations, including the World Bank and the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative for Africa. She has worked extensively in sub-Saharan Africa combating a wide range of threats to human rights and development.

Her experience includes drafting law and legislation, working with international and national partners, including law enforcement agents, prosecutors, and the judiciary, to provide access to justice for victims of international crimes, and to build institutional capacity to address the same.

As a program manager, Yvonne served as regional anti-trafficking advisor/director in East Africa. Yvonne has a deep knowledge and passion for human rights and justice in Africa, and has over the past eight years been a key player in the development of programs and laws to combat human trafficking on the continent. Most recently she has engaged youth at the Pan-African level to assume leadership in the fight against human rights violations of the youth.

Yvonne earned her Bachelor of Arts in political science and pre-law, magna cum laude, from Arcadia University, and her JD from American University’s Washington College of Law, where she was a dean’s fellow for the Women and International Law program