Bishop Trevor Mwamba was born in Mansa, Zambia. He received his degrees in law and theology from the University of Zambia and Oxford, England respectively. Bishop Mwamba later did his graduate degree in social anthropology at Keble College Oxford.
He trained for the priesthood at Saint Stephen’s House, Oxford, and was ordained in 1984 at Saint Luke’s Chelsea in London and served his curacy in the Parish of All Saints, Notting Hill before returning to Zambia where he was priested in Ndola in 1985. As Rector of Luanshya, Bishop Mwamba also assumed the responsibilities of Vocational Director for the Diocese of Central Zambia.
In 1987 Bishop Mwamba was appointed Provincial Secretary of the Church of the Province of Central Africa (The Anglican Church in Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). As Provincial Secretary he was primarily responsible for coordinating the work of the dioceses in the Province and served as Secretary to the Provincial Synod, Provincial Standing Committee and Episcopal Synod, with the responsibility of executing the decisions passed by these bodies. Bishop Mwamba’s other responsibilities involved maintaining links with governments, local and international organizations. Bishop Mwamba created the first Provincial Canon of the Province by Episcopal Synod in 1991. Bishop Mwamba also served as his personal assistant and Legal advisor to the then Archbishop of Central Africa, Dr. Khotso W. P. Makhulu.
From 1996 to 1999 Bishop Mwamba worked as assistant chaplain at Keble College, Oxford and assistant priest at Wolvercote North Oxford respectively whilst studying for his research degree. On his return to Botswana in 1999, Bishop Mwamba became a non-stipendiary Priest and worked for five years as a banker as Head of Legal and Compliance, Corporate Affairs and Company Secretary at Standard Chartered Bank Botswana Limited. He was appointed Vicar General of the diocese of Botswana in 2002 and consecrated Bishop of Botswana on 6th February 2005.
Bishop Mwamba has sat and continues to sit on numerous boards such as Transparency International (Botswana), and the Botswana Human Rights Centre (Ditshwanelo). Bishop Mwamba has also drafted constitutions for the Botswana Council of Churches and Young Women’s Christian Fellowship. He has lectured as a visiting Professor at the University of Ohio. Bishop Mwamba’s character is captured in Alexander McCall Smith’s best seller series “The Full Cupboard of Life” and “In the Company of Cheerful Ladies”. He is married to Mmasekgoa and they have three children.
Mr. Senegiorgis is a consultant and attorney at law and vice president of Preator Law College and Research Institute. He has served as a judge at Federal High Court, as deputy attorney general, as senior legal expert in the legal studies and counseling department of the ministry of justice, and as assistant lecturer on international law at the Institute of International Law, Moscow, Russia.
Earlier in his career, he pursued higher studies and a research program for a doctoral dissertation in the field of the protection of massive forests (with special reference to Africa) and in the field of specialization on International Law and Relations at Russian People’s Friendship University in Moscow and upon a successful completion was awarded a PhD degree in Jurisprudence. He also pursued higher studies in the field of History and Law at Volgograd State University in Russia and upon a successful completion was awarded a Degree of M.A with Honors.
Mr. Senegiorgis has a number of publications to his credit, including International Legal Problem of Protection of Massive Forests (with Special Reference to Africa) 1995, Moscow Russia; Ecological Security and Rights of People for Existence; and Universal International Cooperation of States in the Field of Protection of Massive Forests in Developing Countries.
Mr. Senegiorgis is proficient in Amharic, English and Russian.
Professor Ernest Aryeetey is the new Vice-Chancellor of University of Ghana.
A Professor of Economics, he was a Senior Fellow and Director of the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. He was also Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana, Legon for the period February 2003 – January 2010.
Professor Aryeetey was educated at Achimota School (1968-1973) and at the Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School, Legon (1973-1975). He studied Economics with Statistics (1975-1978) at the University of Ghana and took a Masters degree in Regional Planning at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (1979-1981) and obtained a Doktor-Ingenieur at the University of Dortmund, Germany in 1985. Ernest Aryeetey’s area of specialisation is Development Economics. He was elected Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.
After teaching on the Spring Programme at the University of Dortmund for a year, Ernest Aryeetey returned to Ghana in 1986 to start work as a Research Fellow at the University of Ghana’s Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER). He was promoted Senior Research Fellow in 1990, Associate Professor in 1997 and a full Professor in 2000. Ernest Aryeetey taught at the Department of Economics, University of Ghana (1986-1992). He has also been Temporary Lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1993); Visiting Professor at Yale University Department of Economics (1999); and the Cornell Visiting Professor, Department of Economics at Swarthmore College (2001-2002).
Ernest Aryeetey's research work focuses on the economics of development with interest in institutions and their role in development, regional integration, economic reforms, financial systems in support of development and small enterprise development. He is very well known for his work on informal finance and microfinance in Africa. He has consulted for various international agencies on a number of development and political economy subjects. He has presented seminar papers at Departments of Economics and Planning in such universities as Ohio State University, the University of Manchester, Oxford University, Harvard University, Yale University, New York University, University of Copenhagen, University of California, Los Angeles, Georgetown University, and Sophia University, Tokyo.
Ernest Aryeetey has published 3 books, 5 edited volumes, 26 journal articles and over 100 conference, working and discussion papers. Among his publications are Financial Integration and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (Routledge 1998) and Economic Reforms in Ghana: the Miracle and the Mirage (James Currey 2000). His latest publication is with Chris Udry in the American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings (May 2010). He was the second recipient of the Michael Bruno award of the World Bank to become a Visiting Scholar for May-October 1998.
Professor Aryeetey is married to Ellen Bortei-Doku Aryeetey and has two children, James Nii Armah and Felicia Naa Dedei.
J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu PhD: is Professor of Contemporary African Christianity and Pentecostal/Charismatic Theology in Africa at the Trinity Theological Seminary, Accra, Ghana. His teaching areas include non-Western Christianity and Theology and Media in Africa. He is also Director of Graduate Studies at the Seminary. Kwabena has served as visiting scholar to the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University (2004); Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota (2007); and Senior Resident Scholar at the Overseas Ministries Study Center (2012). He is a member of the Lausanne Theology Working Group and a Trustee of the Oxford Center for Mission Studies, UK. Kwabena is author of African Charismatics: Current Developments within Independent Indigenous Pentecostalism in Ghana (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2005); Christianity, Missions and Ecumenism in Ghana (Accra: Asempa Publishers, 2009); Strange Warmth: Wesleyan Perspectives on Renewal, Ministry and Discipleship (Accra: Asempa Publishers, 2011); co-editor with Frieder Ludwig of African Christian Presence in the West: New Immigrant Congregations and Transnational Networks in North America and Europe (Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2011); Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity: Interpretations from an African Context (forthcoming, Regnum Oxford 2012); and many articles in international journals relating to his fields of research.
Dr. Atupare is a leading public law lecturer and consultant in Ghana whose opinions are widely sought after in both corporate and public sectors. He has a wide-ranging experience and expertise in Constitutional Law; Jurisprudence; Criminal Law; Administrative Law; Employment and Labour Law and the Law of Torts. He is currently a full-time Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana where he teaches courses both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. His degrees include B.A./LL.B (Ghana); M.A. (Brock); LL.M/PHD (Queen’s, Canada).
Justice Date-Bah attended Achimota School in Ghana and then received an LL.B (First Class Honours) from the University of Ghana in 1965. He qualified as barrister at law in Ghana in 1966, received an LL.M from Yale Law School in 1967 and received a Ph.D. from London School of Economics, London University in 1969.
In addition to his service with the courts, Justice Date-Bah also serves as: Chairman, Management Committee of the Accra Commercial Court; Chairman, Examination Committee of the Ghana Judiciary; Chairman, Business Law Reform Committee of Experts, currently engaged in reforming the companies legislation of Ghana; Chairman, Ghana Law Reform Commission; and Chairman, Council of the University of Ghana, Legon.
In the past, he has been Special Adviser (Legal) at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, responsible for effective legal advisory and negotiating services to the developing member states of the Commonwealth. He played an instrumental role as leader of a multidisciplinary Commonwealth Secretariat team which assisted the first independence Government of Namibia in negotiating a joint-venture agreement with De Beers that has been the bedrock of the Namibian economy since then.
Justice Date-Bah has taught contract, tort, commercial law and public international law in his positions as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and then Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ghana; as Associate Professor of Commercial Law, University of Nairobi; and Professor and Head of Department of Private Law, University of Calabar, Nigeria. He has held visiting academic positions at Lincoln College, Oxford University (1972); at the Yale Law School (1976); and at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (1998).
Justice Date-Bah has publised extensively on Ghanaian law and on and international commercial law.
Professor Emmanuel Kwabena Quansah holds the degrees of LL.B and LL.M from the University of London, United Kingdom; LL.D from the University of South Africa, Pretoria South Africa. He is a Barrister of Gray’s Inn, London, Barrister and Solicitor of Ghana and Attorney of the High Court of Botswana. He has taught various law courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels at universities in Nigeria, Botswana and Ghana. In 2008, he was one of 20 scholars who were invited by the Centre for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia to a roundtable conference to discuss contemporary problems in the relationships between law, religion, and human rights in selected African countries in Durban, South Africa. He is currently the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, Mountcrest University College, the first private university accredited to offer law courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Ghana.
Prof. Kofi Quashigah is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ghana and Dean of the Faculty. His teaching and research interests include Constitutional Law, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Jurisprudence, Governance, Elections Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution.
He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Harvard Human Rights Program between 2001/2002 and a McArthur Foundation Visiting Scholar at the University of Wisconsin, USA in 1992.
He was adjudged and honored as the 2005 Best Teacher in the Humanities in the University of Ghana.
Brigid M. Sackey (M.A. Philipps University, Marburg, West Germany; PhD, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA) is Professor of anthropology currently at the Centre for Social Policy Studies (CSPS). With her research interest in cultural anthropology, she focuses on how culture affects, and is affected by, policies on family, ageing, and gender issues. Professor Sackey comes to the Centre with 25 years of extensive research and teaching experience from the Institute of Africa Studies, University of Ghana, where she also served as Deputy Director and Acting Director. She was a Research Associate and Visiting Scholar in the Women’s Studies and Religion Programme, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA from 2002-2003. Her book New Directions in Gender and Religion published by Lexington Books: A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Lanham, 2006, has received several positive academic reviews and assessment.
Jallah A. Barbu is a Liberian lawyer. He read law at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law (undergraduate) in Liberia and Indiana University School of Law, Bloomington (graduate). He also holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Liberia.
Mr. Barbu is a member and former Secretary of the Liberian National Bar Association and the Bar of the Supreme Court of Liberia. He was the first Vice Chairperson and is now the Chairperson of Liberia’s Law Reform Commission in addition to his membership on the Law School’s faculty, teaching Constitutional
Law and Moot Court.
David A. B. Jallah, born on March 25, 1951 in Owensgrove, Grand Bassa County, Republic of Liberia, is Dean and Full Professor of Law, Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, University of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia. He joined the Law Faculty in 1984 and became Dean in 2000. Prior to becoming Dean, he served as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor. Dean Jallah is a 1975 graduate of the William V. S. Tubman Teacher’s College, University of Liberia (BSc) and a 1978 graduate of the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law (L.LB), also at the University of Liberia. He holds a Master of Laws Degree (L.LM) from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America (1984). He is also a graduate of the Liberia Foreign Service Institute (1975); a graduate of the International Law Development Institute (Now International Law Development Organization (1986), Rome, Italy. He was Deputy Commissioner of Immigration & Naturalization, Ministry of Justice, Republic of Liberia (1979-1980). He has been engaged in the private practice of law since 1981, first with the Cooper & Togbah Law Firm and then with The David A. B. Jallah Law Firm which he established in 1988 where he still serves as a Senior Consultant. He once served as Chairman of the City Council of Monrovia for several years after 2006. He is Past President of the Liberia Chamber of Commerce and Past President of the Liberian National Bar Association. He is admitted to practice law in all courts in Liberia and is also a member of the New York Bar, United States of America. He is a member of Lions Club International with his home Club being Greater Monrovia Lions Club located in District 403 A-2.
Rev Dr W.S. Zeze, born in 1970, is a Doctoral Degree graduate of Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Currently he is a minister of Buwa Congregation of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). He attended conferences in South Africa, the Netherlands and Malawi where he also presented papers inter alia Inhabiting Traditions, Reconciliation, Christ the Head of the Church: Authority, leadership and Organizational structure of the CCAP Nkhoma Synod. He envisaged to author books on Why and how other churches grow? Secularism: A Challenge to the Modern Church. Church-state Relationship: A Contemporary View addition to Women Ministry, the one he authored in 2008. He is looking forward to become a lecturer in Church History, Church Law and Church Polity and History of Christian Religion.
Niankoro Yeah Samaké is a native of Mali, West Africa. He is a graduate of the Public Policy Program at Brigham Young University. Since his graduation from BYU-Utah, he holds many current jobs and duties. He is the current Mayor of Ouelessebougou, Mali having served since 2009. Given his success as the Mayor of Ouelessebougou in reducing corruption and improving his community’s conditions, he was elected out of 703 mayors as the Vice President to the League of Mayors, an unprecedented honor for a first time Mayor. In addition, he is the Executive Director of the Mali Rising Foundation, located in Sandy, Utah, that is dedicated to building schools in the rural areas of Mali, West Africa, where education is not easily accessible. To date, 15 schools have been constructed in Mali’s impoverished, rural communities.
In 2011, Mr. Samaké announced his candidacy for the Presidential elections that were to be held in Mali on April 29th 2012. Unfortunately, a coup in March 2012 derailed the elections and democracy in Mali. Now Mali exists as a separated country with a North captured by Islamists and a South with no real government. Samaké hopes to become part of a lasting solution to return democracy and restore Mali’s territorial integrity.
Professor, pastor and human rights activist Dr. Nico Horn has been at the forefront of the battle against the remnants apartheid in Namibia by working to create a sustainable system that facilitates communication and research within the judiciary. Dr. Horn became the Director of the Human Rights and Documentation Center at the University of Namibia in 2002. He then went on to teach as a professor of human rights and constitutional law at the University of Namibia, and in 2007 was promoted to the Dean of the Law Faculty.
During his tenure at the Human Rights and Documentation Center, Dr. Horn led multiple projects, including the encouragement of government legislation against torture, human rights training for the police, army, prosecutors and magistrates, and a lobbying effort for a human rights commission that secured the appointment of a human rights advisory body to the office of the Ombudsman in 2005.
Previously, Dr. Horn worked for the faith-based NGO, Help International, where, at the request of the Namibian government, he acted as a representative of the organization at the second United Nations conference in Istanbul. He also worked for the Danish NGO IBIS, that trains journalists for the labor movement.
Dr. Horn attributes inspiration for his work to his personal experience of living in South Africa under apartheid. Upon completion of his education at the AFM Theological College, Dr. Horn worked as a journalist covering stories of student resistance against apartheid in Soweto, Johannesburg. The images of young children standing up against injustice, and even willing to sacrifice their own lives, remain etched in his mind and contribute to his passion for human rights.
Dr. Horn is also the Editor of the Namibian Human Rights On-line Journal. He is well-published in the fields of Human Rights, International Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, and Pentecostal Theology. In 2008, he was co-editor of three books; including works on judicial independence and a commentary on the new Namibian Criminal Procedure Act.
Professor Allswell Osini Muzan is currently the Director of the Peace and Conflict Resolution Program at the Royal Aspen Institute in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He also a Professor of Law at Kogi State University in Anyigba, Nigeria. Professor Muzan received his L.L. M from Columbia University, a J.D. from Northern Illinois University Law School. Professor Muzan was Dean of Law at Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria; and Dean of Law at Rivers State University in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Mr. Abdulmumuni A. Oba of the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law graduated with an LL.B degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 1984 and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1985 after graduating from the Nigerian Law School. He further got his LL.M from the same university of his undergraduate degree and is currently in advanced stages of his PH.D.
Mr. Oba was previously in legal practice between 1985-1988 and 1992-1995. He was Law Office at the Ministry of Justice, Ilorin between 1988 and 1992. He joined the Faculty of Law in 1995 and was the pioneer Head of Department of the then Department of International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, Ilorin from 1998-1999, then Head, Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, 1999-2002. He is also a visiting Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Kogi State University, Anyigba, 2007-2008. He is currently Senior Lecturer at the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, University of Ilorin, Ilorin.
Matthews A. Ojo is a Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. His research focuses on African Christianity, with special interest in the dynamics of Pentecostal and charismatic movements in Africa and indigenous Protestant missions from Africa. He has published widely on Pentecostalism in Nigeria and is therefore rightly portrayed as the pioneer of the study of Charismatic Christianity in Nigeria. His book The End-Time Army: Charismatic Movements in Modern Nigeria is the first and most detailed account of Nigerian Pentecostalism.
Prof. Is-haq Olarewaju Oloyede was born in October 1954. He hails from Abeokuta South Local Government Area of Ogun State. He was appointed Deputy Vice - Chancellor (Academic) on June 19, 2003 and Deputy Vice -Chancellor (Administration) on July 6, 2005.
He had his Secondary Education from 1969-1973 at the Progressive Institute, Agege Lagos and Arabic Training Centre Agege, Lagos, (Markaz) from 1973-1976 and later to the University of Ibadan between 1976 and 1977 where he obtained a certificate in Arabic and Islamic Studies.
His tertiary education began in the University of Ilorin in 1978 where he studied Arabic and was awarded a B.A. Arabic (First Class Hons) in 1981. In July 1982 he was appointed an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Religions of the University.
In 1991, he had his Doctorate degree in Islamic Studies also from the University of Ilorin.
He was elected the Vice Chancellor on the 15th October 2007 for a single term of five years. Currently, Prof Is-haq Oloyede is the Executive Secretary of National Inter -Religious Council (NIREC) and also the President of Association of African Universities (AAU).
He has authored and co-authored several articles in reputable local and international outlets. Prof. Oloyede is married with 4 children and one grandchild.
Mr. Christian Nsabimana Garuka is both a Human Rights Researcher and Lawyer. Besides practicing as a lawyer (attorney /barrister), he has published in the field of human rights and also has been involved in various human rights related advocacy, research and training at both national and regional level. He also teaches Human Rights at Mount Kenya University – Rwanda Campus. He has consulted for United Nations Agencies and International and national NGOs.
He holds a Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratization in Africa from the University of Pretoria and a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the National University of Rwanda.
Florence Mukamugema received an LLM degree in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the Centre of Human Rights at the University of Pretoria in 2001. She is currently a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law of the National University of Rwanda.
Emanuel Ekundayo Constant Shears-Moses is the Head of the Department of Law at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, where he has been a lecturer since 1996. Also heads the law firm of Shears-Moses & Co. with divisions which treat commercial, family, succession, and corporate matters. Has given several talks on a wide range of subjects relating to customary law in Sierra Leone. Has been a member of the Law Reform Commission for several years and served on the commission set up to review the country’s constitution. He has been the Chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of Bo, Sierra Leone since 1988.A member of the Synod of the Church of The Province of West Africa (Anglican Communion). Conducted Commissions of Inquiry into the Security of The Central Prisons in 2001, also the incidents of political violence and political intolerance in 2009.
Prof Pieter Coertzen was born on 20 April 1943 in Boksburg, South Africa. He obtained seven degrees: BA (1963), BA Hons (1964) and MA in Philosophy (1970) - all cum laude at the former Pothefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (currently North West University). Meanwhile, he also obtained his Bachelor of Theology (1967), Licentiate in Theology (1968) and Master of Theology in Ecclesiology (1969) - all three cum laude at the University of Stellenbosch. He obtained his doctors degree in Theology (Ecclesiology) in 1976 also at the University of Stellenbosch. At the same time (November 1970 to September 1974) he was the parish minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in Dundee, Natal and from October 1974 until the end of 1976 he was student minister at the Dutch Reformed Church Potchefstroom-North.
He was called as Senior Lecturer in Ecclesiology at the Faculty of Theology (University of Stellenbosch) in 1977. In 1988 he became professor and from 1995 to 1997, he was the Dean of the Faculty. During this time the Dutch Reformed Church Franschhoek also called him as associated minister.. Here he served (since 3 September 1995 until 20 April 2008) with Rev. Willie van Zyl, Dr. Johan Spies, Rev. Chris Crause and Rev. Bossie Minnaar. From 1991 to 1999 he was actuarius (Church Law Advisor) of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (Western and Southern Cape) and from 1994 to 2004 the actuarius of the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church. Since the early eighties he also served in the the Church Law Committees of the Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (Western and Southern Cape) and of the General Synod.
Professor Coertzen retired in April 2004 as a lecturer at the Faculty of Theology, but he was immediately appointed as Extraordinary Professor in Comparative Church Law at the Catholic University of Louvain and at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Stellenbosch. He was (and is) very active as scholar and theologian. The NGTT (of which he has been the editor for years) published 36 of his articles. He has written 14 books and is also co-author or editor of 26 publications. He also wrote numerous articles in other journals, bulletins and journals. His two main book publications are Die Hugenote van Suid-Afrika 1688 – 1988 and Ordelik en Gepas. ‘n Teologiese verantwoording van die Orde vir en in die Kerk. Both works are translated in English.
Although he formally retired as teacher, it is definitely not a quiet time for him. In addition to his teaching duties at Stellenbosch and Leuven he was chairman of the Huguenot Memorial Museum in Franschhoek, where major expansions are planned. He was also the Chairman of the organizing committee for the Seminary's 150-year celebrations in 2009 and the editor of the festschrift over the Seminary. He is also the chairman of a committee that that is preparing a Charter of Religious Rights for South Africa for possible adoption by the Parliament. In addition, he continues his research on Religious Freedom and the relationship between Church and State in the light of the Constitution.
Charles Fombad is the current head of the Department of Public Law. He holds the degrees LL.B (Yaoundé), LL.M and Ph.D. (London) as well as a diploma in Conflict Resolution (Uppsala). The title of his Ph.D. thesis is “The settlement of disputes under international air transport agreements”. He was appointed as head of department for a four year term on 1 January 2010.
He was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Yaoundé from 1988 - 1997. Thereafter he was appointed lecturer at the University of Botswana from 1997 and was a full professor by the time he left in December 2009. He has also taught as visiting lecturer in the Universities of Buea and Dschang in Cameroon.
He has taught various courses in his career including, Introduction to law and legal systems, Law and Social Research Methods, Law of International Organisations, Law of Tort, Law of Delict, Commercial Law, Law of Contract, and Equity and Trust at the undergraduate level. At the postgraduate level, he has taught Comparative Constitutional Law, Law and Sports, Legal Issues in Counselling, International Law, Maritime Law, International Business Transactions, and International Commercial Arbitration. He has presented lectures at various national and international conferences. He is an external examiner in the School of Law, University of Witwatersrand.
Mr. Hansungule is a Professor of International Law and International Human Rights Law in the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa. His academic qualifications include the following:
PhD, University of Vienna, Austria; LL.M, University of Graz, Austria; LL.M, School of Law, University of Zambia; LL.B, School of Law, University of Zambia.
Dr. Hansungule has taught at the University of Zambia, National University of Lesotho, University of Lund in Sweden, Mahidol University in Thailand and now the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He has taught Human Rights Law in over 45 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and Central America. He has also been a consultant to many organizations, multilateral and single-bodies.
Nokuzola Mndende holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town. She is the Director and Founder of Icamagu Institute, which focuses on African Religion and Spirituality. She is also Deputy Chair: Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims; Deputy Chair: South African Charter on Religious Rights and Freedoms; National Chairperson: Council of African Religion; Chairperson and Founder: Ethongweni Traditional Healers' Association; and the author of several books on African Traditional Religion and Culture.
Helena van Coller is a Senior Lecturer at the Law Faculty of Rhodes University, South Africa. Her main field of research is Administrative Law. She joined the Faculty in July 2005.
She obtained her LLB and LLM degrees from the University of the Free State and a LLM from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. She was admitted as an advocate in 2004. She submitted her LLD on the topic of Administrative Law and Religious Organisations in 2012. She is also member of ICLARS (The International Consortium for Law and Religious Studies).
Taught law since 1974 in the Faculty of Law in Potchefstroom – since 1980 as professor. Dean 2001-2012. Regularly visited Germany on research grants from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation since 1979. Convenor of the Technical Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the Multiparty Negotiation Process (MPNP) in Kempton Park May to December 1993 (the Committee was responsible for the formulation of a large part of the first fully democratic Constitution of South Africa). President of the South African Law Deans' Association 2009-2010. Promoter for eleven completed doctoral theses. Rated by the National Research Foundation of South Africa in 2011 as a researcher "who enjoys considerable international recognition by his peers for the high quality and impact of his recent research outputs."
Jean-Baptiste Sourou, citizen of Benin Republic, is Professor of Communications at Saint Augustine University of Tanzania in Mwanza, and teaches Rituals and Communications at the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.
He holds a BA, MA and PHD in Social Communications and Social Sciences from the Gregorian University. He has as well a BA and MA in Theology from Universities in Padua and Rome. He is an international media practitioner.
His research interests center on rites, dance and music, and the relationship between media, culture and religion, especially in Africa. His PhD thesis was about the interface between the entertainment (story telling, music, dance, etc) in the oral African culture and its articulation into mediated, public mass communication; the interface of the religious oral language and religious media … how media pick up, articulate and “extend” the oral. His actual fieldwork involves music and dances in ritual celebrations in African cities.
He is publishing several books about African cultural, social and religious life, among them: “Afrique: Rites antiques célébrations modernes comment les Africains célèbrent leurs rites aujourd’hui”. Africa: Ancient Rituals, New Celebrations, How Africans Celebrate their Rituals Today (Ed. Menaibuc, Paris, France).
He is member of the International Society in Media, Religion and Culture, and Consultant for the Observatory of Media and Religion in Canada.
Dr. Sourou is the founder and the president of “Cedres NGO” which mission is the study of Benin, and African cultures, and their promotion through research, publications, and learning.
He speaks French, English, Italian, Spanish, Fon and Mina, and knows Latin.
Judge and alternatively prosecutor since 2001. Also, I'm lecturer in the Togolese two Universities in Lome and Kara. Judge Kokoroko received training from Togolese National School of Administration in Judiciary. He received his master's degree in International legal studies in 2011 from Washington College of Law, United States; Fundamental law from Nantes University, France, in 2005; and Post graduate degree (DEA) from University of Lomé, Togo in 1999.
Professor Sylvia Tamale is a leading African feminist lawyer and scholar based in Kampala, Uganda. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from Makerere University, a Masters in Law from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. in Sociology and Feminist Studies from the University of Minnesota. She is the immediate outgoing Dean of Law at Makerere University and has been a visiting professor at several academic institutions around the world. Her latest publication is African Sexualities: A Reader (Pambazuka Press, 2011). She has won several awards for defending the human rights of marginalized groups such as women, sex workers, homosexuals and refugees.
Mark Hill QC is a barrister in private practice in London specialising in law and religion and Honorary Professor at Cardiff University in Wales. He has written extensively on religious freedom and discrimination and his recent books include Law and Religion in the United Kingdom (2010) and Religion and Discrimination Law in the European Union (2012). He is a judge in courts of the Church of England and also in the state courts, hearing both criminal and civil matters. He is President of the European Consortium for Church and State Research.
Selam Kidane works as a Local Government Policy Officer in North London. A psychotherapist by training, most of her professional experience is with refugee children and particularly with separated refugee children.
Selam is also a human rights activist, who has been actively advocating for human and democratic rights in Eritrea for over ten years now. One of her areas of concern is religious rights. She is a founding member and a director of a UK based charity Release Eritrea, a pioneering charity that works with Eritrean victims of religious persecution both inside the country and in in refugee communities.
Recently Selam developed a Women’s Centre in Tel Aviv for women survivors of human trafficking in the Sinai Peninsula. The project works with Eritrean Community Churches in Tel Aviv and offers: pastoral Care, family planning and sexual health outreach work, domestic violence outreach work and children’s care facilities for mothers who work long hours.
International Center for Law and Religion Studies,
J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
W. Cole Durham, Jr., is Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, a position he has held since the Center was officially organized on January 1, 2000. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was a Note Editor of the Harvard Law Review and Managing Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal, Professor Cole Durham has been heavily involved in comparative law scholarship, with a special emphasis on comparative constitutional law. He is currently the President of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS), based in Milan, Italy, and a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. From 1989 to 1994, he served as the Secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law, and he is also an Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in Paris—the premier academic organization at the global level in comparative law. He is serving as a General Rapporteur for the topic "Religion and the Secular State" at the 18th International Congress of Comparative Law held in July 2010. He has also served as Chair both of the Comparative Law Section and the Law and Religion Section of the American Association of Law Schools in earlier years.
Professor Durham has taught at the Brigham Young University Law School since 1976, and he was awarded the honorary designation of University Professor there in the fall of 1999. Since 1994, he has also been a Recurring Visiting Professor of Law at Central European University in Budapest, where he teaches comparative constitutional law to students from throughout Eastern Europe, and increasingly from Asia and Africa as well. He has also been a guest professor in Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany and at the University of Vienna. In January, 2009, he was awarded the International First Freedom Award by the First Freedom Center in Richmond, Virginia.
M. Christian Green is a scholar, teacher, researcher, and writer working in the fields of law, religion, ethics, human rights, and world affairs. She holds degrees from Georgetown University in history and government, Emory University in law and theology, and the University of Chicago in religion and ethics. She has taught at DePaul University, Harvard Divinity School, and the Candler School of Theology. She has been a researcher at the Religion, Culture, and Family Project at the University of Chicago, the Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics in Chicago, and the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. Her research interests include law and religion, human rights, feminism and the family, bioethics, and religion and international affairs. She is currently religion book review editor for the Journal of Law and Religion and editor of the blog and resource page “Sharia, Family, and Democracy in Nigeria and Beyond.” During the 2010-2011 academic year, she was a visiting research fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, conducting research on “Religion, Rights, and Recognition of Identity.” Follow her on these social media.
Rosalind I. J. Hackett (PhD Aberdeen, 1986) is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee. She has published widely on religion in Africa, notably on new religious movements, as well as on art, media, gender, conflict, and religious freedom in the African context. Her latest book contains contributions by a wide range of international scholars: Proselytization Revisited (Equinox 2008). In 2005 she was elected President of the International Association for the History of Religions (until 2010).
International Center for Law and Religion Studies
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University
David Kirkham, a professor in the BYU Department of Political Science, came to the International Center for Law and Religion Studies in July 2007 from the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where he served as Associate Dean and Professor of International Politics and Democratic Studies. Dr. Kirkham has also been an Associate Professor of History, Director of International History, and Director of International Plans and Programs at the United States Air Force Academy. He also conducted international negotiations and diplomatic activities for several years for the US Government and United Nations, including as Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva (with duties primarily in Africa). He has lived fifteen years of his adult life in five European countries (Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France and Belgium) and officially represented the United States and the UN in more than forty nations on six continents. He began his career in the early 1980's with a five-year law practice for the US Air Force in England and in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Kirkham's writing and teaching address international human rights, global democratization, constitutionalism, revolution, diplomacy, the United Nations, international humanitarian relief, and the global challenges posed by ideological extremism. Most recently he is co-editor of two books on Islam, law, and politics in Europe. He speaks French and German and holds a Ph.D. from George Washington University and a Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark Law School. Dr. Kirkham is married to the former Judith Hunter, and they are the parents of eight children.
Dean Rasband joined the Law School faculty in 1995. Prior to entering academia, he served as a law clerk to Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced law at Perkins Coie in Seattle, Washington, where his practice focused on Indian treaty litigation. Immediately prior to his appointment as dean, he was serving in university administration as the Associate Academic Vice President for Faculty.
Dean Rasband’s research and teaching has centered on public land and natural resources law and policy. He has published many articles and book chapters on these subjects and is coauthor, along with James Salzman at Duke University and Mark Squillace at the University of Colorado, of Natural Resources Law and Policy, an important casebook in the field. He has taught courses in water law, wildlife law, public lands and natural resources law, torts, and international environmental law. He has also taught as a visiting professor at Murdoch University School of Law in Perth, Australia, and as a visiting fellow at T. C. Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.
Robert Smith has served as the Managing Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies since 2006. In this role he oversees the activities of the Center, including supervising the Annual International Law and Religion Symposium and numerous international conferences each year, in addition to overseeing academic publications and participating in law-reform consultations. He serves as the Center’s Regional Advisor for the United States and teaches a course on the taxation of religious organizations at the J. Reuben Clark Law School.
Professor Smith is a co-author, along with W. Cole Durham, Jr. and William Bassett, of the treatise Religious Organizations and the Law, published by Thomson West. This two-volume, three-thousand-page work for lawyers representing religious organizations in the United States is updated annually. Professor Smith has also co-authored numerous articles on religious freedom and other legal topics, and he is a speaker at international conferences on religious topics.
Before joining the law school, Professor Smith served as Executive Vice-President and General Counsel to CaseData Corporation. Previously, he was a shareholder and chairman of the Corporate and Tax department at the law firm of Kirton & McConkie in Salt Lake City. He also practiced with large law firms in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Illinois. He spent his early career working as a CPA for Deloitte & Touche in California and Washington, D.C.
Professor Smith received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from BYU and is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a Masters of Business Administration degree. He is also a magna cum laude graduate of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, where he was named to the Order of the Coif and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Brigham Young University Law Review.
Johan D. van der Vyver is a former professor of law at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is an expert on human rights law and has been involved in the promotion of human rights in South Africa.
In 1990-91, Professor van der Vyver was the visiting I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Emory; he continued to visit Emory in alternate years to teach courses in international human rights. In 1995, he was appointed the I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Emory. He also served as a fellow in the Human Rights Program of The Carter Center from 1995-1998.
He is the author of many books and more than two hundred law review articles, popular notes, chapters in books and book reviews on human rights and a variety of other subject matters.
Education: BCom, 1954, LLB, 1956, Honns BA, 1965, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education; Doctor Legum, University of Pretoria, 1974; Diploma of the International and Comparative Law of Human Rights of the International Institute of Human Rights (Strasbourg, France), 1986; Doctor Legum (honoris causa) (University of Zululand), 1993; Doctor Legum (honoris causa) (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education), 2003.