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Joe Oloka-Onyango

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Professor
Joe Oloka-Onyango
Born
Joseph Andrew Oloka-Onyango

(1960-09-16) 16 September 1960 (age 64)
London
NationalityUgandan
Occupation(s)Lawyer and academic
Known forLawyer, Legal Scholar, Author, Human Rights and Social Justice Activist.
TitleProfessor
SpouseSylvia Tamale
Children2
Academic background
Alma materHarvard Law School (J.S.D; LL.M) Law Development Centre (Dip. L.P) Makerere University (LL.B)[1]
Academic work
DisciplineConstitutional law, Human rights, Refugee Law
Main interestsConstitutionalism, Political governance, Human rights
Notable worksWhen Courts Do Politics (Cornell University, 2016), Battling over Human Rights: Twenty Essays on Law, Politics and Governance (Langaa Publishing, 2015), Constitutionalism in Africa; Creating Opportunities, Facing Challenges (Fountain Publishers, 2001), Ghosts & the Law

Joe Oloka-Onyango is a Ugandan lawyer and academic.[2] He is a Professor of Law at Makerere University School of Law where he has also formerly been Dean and Director of the Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC).[3] He is married to Prof Sylvia Tamale, also a lawyer, academic and activist. They have two sons; Kwame Sobukwe Ayepa and Samora Okech Sanga.

Early life

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Oloka-Onyango studied Law at Makerere University and attained his post-graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (bar course award) from the Law Development Center in Kampala, before earning his Master of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees at Harvard Law School.[3][4] He is a scholar of Constitutionalism and human rights in the African context.[4]

Career

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Prof Oloka-Onyango previously served as a member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, as UN Special Rapporteur on Globalization and Human Rights, as well as consultant to the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Health Organization.[3] He also serves on the advisory or governing boards of non-profit human rights organizations in North America, Europe and Africa.[4]

He has been a visiting professor at various universities around the world, including Oxford, Cape Town and the United Nations University in Tokyo. In 2014–2015, he spent his sabbatical as Fulbright Professor at George Washington University (GWU) in the USA and Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies (STIAS) in South Africa.[4]

Prof Oloka-Onyango's Professorial Inaugural Lecture, entitled Ghosts & the Law, contained a detailed analysis of the origins, manifestations and intricacies of the Political Question Doctrine in Uganda and its closely related co-concept of Public Interest Litigation and together, their impact on Constitutionalism, the Doctrine of Separation of Powers, enforcement of fundamental Human rights, judicial independence, the phenomenon of "Presidentialism" and other aspects of modern state life. Within this lecture, he also extensively reviewed the historic precedent in Uganda v Commissioner of Prisons, Ex Parte Matovu and its effects on Ugandan jurisprudence to-date.[5][6]

On May 5, 2016, he took lead when he made the inaugural staff lecture at the Makerere University School of Law, presenting a paper entitled "Enter the Dragon, Exit a Myth: The Contested Candidacy of John Patrick Amama Mbabazi".[7]

On May 9, 2016, Prof Oloka-Onyango and 8 other law dons from Makerere University School of Law successfully filed an application before the Supreme Court of Uganda for leave to intervene in Uganda's 2017 Presidential election petition, Amama Mbabazi v. Yoweri Museveni & the Electoral Commission,[8] as Amici Curiae. This became the first time in Ugandan electoral history that the Supreme Court heard and granted an application for such leave. The nine law dons were; Oloka-Onyango, Sylvia Tamale, Christopher Mbazira, Ronald Naluwairo, Rose Nakayi, Busingye Kabumba, Daniel Ruhwheza, Kakungulu Mayambala and Daniel Ngabirano. As part of their submission, the law dons recommended to the Court the use of structural interdicts or supervisory injunctions to deal with the persistent disregard of its recommendations by the Electoral Commission and the State in matters of the electoral process. In its ruling, the Court stated that;

"We are satisfied that the applicants have proven record in the area of Human Rights, Constitutionalism and Good Governance. They are highly experienced and widely researched legal scholars in these and related matters as evidenced by the attached curricula vitae."

Cases

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Prof Oloka-Onyango is an active litigant and has been involved in various cases of Constitutional importance and relevance to the Human rights field. He was the lead petitioner in Constitutional Petition No. 8 of 2014, "Oloka-Onyango & 9 Others v. the Attorney General",[9] before the Constitutional Court wherein the Anti Homosexuality Act of 2014 was declared void. He was also one of the petitioners in Constitutional Petition No. 2 of 2003, "Uganda Association of Women Lawyers & 5 Others v. the Attorney General" which successfully challenged the Constitutional validity of several provisions of Uganda's Divorce Act for being contrary to the Constitutionally guaranteed rights to equality of all persons regardless of sex and the rights of women.[10]

Works

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Some of Prof Oloka-Onyango's works include:

  • Politics, Democratization and Academia in Uganda: The Case of Makerere University (Daraja Press, 2021)[11]
  • An Overview of the Legal System in Uganda[12]
  • The National Resistance Movement,“Grassroots Democracy”, and Dictatorship in Uganda[13]
  • Controlling Consent: Uganda's 2016 Elections – Edited by J. Oloka-Onyango and Josephine Ahikire (2016)[14]
  • "When Courts Do Politics" (Cornell University, 2016)
  • "Enter the Dragon, Exit a Myth: The Contested Candidacy of John Patrick Amama Mbabazi" (2016)[15]
  • "From Expulsion to Exclusion" (2016)
  • "Befriending the Judiciary: Behind and Beyond the 2016 Supreme Court Amicus Curiae Rulings in Uganda" – J Oloka-Onyango and Christopher Mbazira (2016)[16]
  • "Battling over Human Rights: Twenty Essays on Law, Politics and Governance" (Langaa Publishing, 2015)[17]
  • "Debating Love, Politics and Identity in East Africa: The Case of Kenya and Uganda" in the African Journal of Human Rights (2015)[18]
  • "Human Rights and Public Interest Litigation in East Africa: A Bird's Eye View" in the George Washington University International Law Review (2015)[19]
  • "Unpacking the African Backlash to The International Criminal Court (ICC): The Case of Uganda and Kenya" (2015)[20]
  • "Police Powers, Politics and Democratic Governance in Post-Movement Uganda (2011)
  • Beyond the rhetoric: reinvigorating the struggle for economic and social rights in Africa[21]
  • Heretical Reflections on the Right to Self-Determination: Prospects and Problems for a Democratic Global Future in the New Millenium[22]
  • Civil society and the political economy of foreign aid in Uganda[23]
  • The question of Buganda in contemporary Ugandan politics[24]
  • The plight of the larger half: Human rights, gender violence and the legal status of refugee and internally displaced women in Africa[25]
  • Human rights, the OAU Convention and the refugee crisis in Africa: Forty years after Geneva[26]
  • Constitutional transition in Museveni's Uganda: new horizons or another false start?[27]
  • Bitches at the academy: Gender and academic freedom at the African university[28]
  • Uganda's 'Benevolent'Dictatorship[29]
  • Police Powers, Human Rights and the State in Kenya and Uganda: A Comparatice Analysis[30]
  • The place and role of the OAU Bureau for refugees in the African refugee crisis[31]
  • The Dynamics of Corruption Control and Human Rights Enforcement in Uganda: The Case of the Inspector General of Government[32]
  • Uganda: studies in living conditions, popular movements, and constitutionalism[33]
  • Decentralization without human rights?: local governance and access to justice in post-movement Uganda.[34]
  • Who's watching'Big Brother'? Globalisation and the protection of cultural rights in present-day Africa[35]
  • Governance, Democracy and Development in Uganda Today: A socio-legal Examination[36]
  • Poverty, human rights and the quest for sustainable human development in structurally-adjusted Uganda[37]
  • Forced Displacement and the Situation of Refugee and Internally Displaced Women in Africa[38]
  • Movement-Related Rights in the Context of Internal Displacement[39]
  • 'Taming'the President: Some Critical Reflections on the Executive and the Separation of Powers in Uganda[40]
  • Development Financing: The Case of the Uganda Development Bank.[34]
  • Age-based discrimination and the rights of the elderly in Uganda: conference paper[41]
  • Obote: A Political Biography
  • The personal is political, or why women's rights are indeed human rights: An African perspective on international feminism[42]
  • Liberalization Without Liberation: Understanding the Paradoxes of Opening the Political Spaces in Uganda[43]
  • Pastoralism, crisis and transformation in Karamoja.[44]

References

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  1. ^ "Joe Oloka Onyango | Makerere University School of Law". Archived from the original on 2017-08-08. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  2. ^ "Trustees/ Executive Board". Alliance for Africa. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
  3. ^ a b c Onyango, Joe Oloka (2016-01-12). "Joe Oloka Onyango". www.law.mak.ac.ug. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  4. ^ a b c d "Prof. Joe Oloka Onyango | The Public Interest Law Clinic". pilac.mak.ac.ug. Archived from the original on 2016-06-20.
  5. ^ "Prof Oloka-Onyango talks on 'ghosts' and the law". Daily Monitor. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  6. ^ "Professor Oloka-Onyango delivers inaugural lecture on GHOSTS AND THE LAW". Makerere University News Portal. 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  7. ^ "Professor Joe Oloka Onyango presents the inaugural School of Law Staff Seminar".
  8. ^ Election Petition No. 1 of 2017. Supreme Court of Uganda
  9. ^ "Oloka-Onyango & 9 Ors v Attorney General (CONSTITUTIONAL PETITION N0. 08 OF 2014. ) [2014] UGCC 14 (1 August 2014); | Uganda Legal Information Institute". ulii.org. Archived from the original on 2018-10-04. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  10. ^ see Articles 21, 31 and 33 of Uganda's 1995 Constitution.
  11. ^ "Politics, Democratization and Academia in Uganda: The Case of Makerere University". Daraja Press. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  12. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (2020-06-02). "An Overview of the Legal System in Uganda". Rochester, NY. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3617283. S2CID 243098895. SSRN 3617283. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (1991), "The National Resistance Movement, "Grassroots Democracy", and Dictatorship in Uganda", Democracy and Socialism in Africa, Routledge, pp. 125–141, doi:10.4324/9780429045660-7 (inactive 16 December 2024), ISBN 978-0-429-04566-0, S2CID 191654891, retrieved 2022-03-01{{citation}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of December 2024 (link)
  14. ^ "CONTROLLING CONSENT: Uganda's 2016 Election, Edited by J. Oloka-Onyango and Josephine Ahikire". Africa World Press & The Red Sea Press. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  15. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (2016). "Enter the Dragon Exit a Myth; the Contested Candidacy of John Patrick Amama Mbabazi". Rochester, NY. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3617258. S2CID 233760459. SSRN 3617258. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. ^ Oloka, -Onyango J.; Mbazira, Christopher (2016-03-15). "Befriending the judiciary: behind and beyond the 2016 Supreme Court amicus curiae rulings in Uganda". Africa Journal of Comparative Constitutional Law. 2016 (1): 1–22. hdl:10520/EJC-60f9613a8.
  17. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (2015). Battling over Human Rights: Twenty Essays on Law, Politics and Governance. Langaa RPCIG. ISBN 978-9956-762-15-6.
  18. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (2015). "Debating love, human rights and identity politics in East Africa: The case of Uganda and Kenya". African Human Rights Law Journal. 15 (1): 28–57. doi:10.17159/1996-2096/2015/V15N1A2. ISSN 1996-2096.
  19. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (2015). "Human Rights and Public Interest Litigation in East Africa: A Bird's Eye View". George Washington International Law Review. 47: 763.
  20. ^ Oloka-Onyango, Joe (2020). "Unpacking the African Backlash to the International Criminal Court (ICC): The Case of Uganda and Kenya". Strathmore Law Journal. 4: 41–67. doi:10.52907/slj.v4i1.44. S2CID 236861842.
  21. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (1995–1996). "Beyond the Rhetoric: Reinvigorating the Struggle for Economic and Social Rights in Africa". California Western International Law Journal. 26: 1.
  22. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (1999–2000). "Heretical Reflections on the Right to Self-Determination: Prospects and Problems for a Democratic Global Future in the New Millenium". American University of International Law Review. 15: 151.
  23. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J.; Barya, J.J. (1997-06-01). "Civil society and the political economy of foreign aid in Uganda". Democratization. 4 (2): 113–138. doi:10.1080/13510349708403517. ISSN 1351-0347.
  24. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (1997). "The question of Buganda in contemporary Ugandan politics". Journal of Contemporary African Studies. 15 (2): 173–189. doi:10.1080/02589009708729610. ISSN 0258-9001.
  25. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (1995–1996). "The Plight of the Larger Half: Human Rights, Gender Violence and the Legal Status of Refugee and Internally Displaced Women in Africa". Denver Journal of International Law and Policy. 24: 349.
  26. ^ Oloka-Onyango, Joe (1991). "Human Rights, the OAU Convention and the Refugee Crisis in Africa: Forty Years after Geneva". International Journal of Refugee Law. 3: 453. doi:10.1093/ijrl/3.3.453.
  27. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (1995). "Constitutional Transition in Museveni's Uganda: New Horizons or Another False Start?*". Journal of African Law. 39 (2): 156–172. doi:10.1017/S0021855300006306. ISSN 1464-3731. S2CID 146143710.
  28. ^ Tamale, Sylvia; Oloka-Onyango, J. (1997). "Bitches at the Academy: Gender and Academic Freedom at the African University". Africa Development / Afrique et Développement. 22 (1): 13–37. ISSN 0850-3907. JSTOR 24482781.
  29. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (1998-08-30). "Uganda's 'Benevolent' Dictatorship". Rochester, NY. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3621118. S2CID 233763690. SSRN 3621118. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  30. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (1990). "Police Powers, Human Rights and the State in Kenya and Uganda: A Comparatice Analysis". Third World Legal Studies. 1990: 1.
  31. ^ https://academic.oup.com/ijrl/article-abstract/6/1/34/1547965. Retrieved 2022-03-01. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  32. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (1992). "The Dynamics of Corruption Control and Human Rights Enforcement in Uganda: The Case of the Inspector General of Government". The African Review: A Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs. 19 (1/2): 98–123. ISSN 0856-0056. JSTOR 45341591.
  33. ^ Mamdani, Mahmood; Oloka-Onyango, Joe (1994). "Uganda: studies in living conditions, popular movements, and constitutionalism" (2). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  34. ^ a b Oloka-Onyango, Joe (1987). "Development Financing: The Case of the Uganda Development Bank" (PDF). Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies. 15 (3): 137–155. doi:10.5070/F7153016978. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  35. ^ Oloka, -Onyango Joe (2005-01-01). "Who's watching 'Big Brother'? Globalisation and the protection of cultural rights in present-day Africa". African Human Rights Law Journal. 5 (1): 1–26. hdl:10520/EJC52019.
  36. ^ http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/messages/downloadsexceeded.html. Retrieved 2022-03-01. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  37. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (2000). "Poverty, Human Rights and the Quest for Sustainable Human Development in Structurally-Adjusted Uganda". Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights. 18 (1): 23–44. doi:10.1177/092405190001800103. ISSN 0924-0519. S2CID 149230506.
  38. ^ Oloka-Onyango, Joe (1998). "Forced Displacement and the Situation of Refugee and Internally Displaced Women in Africa". East African Journal of Peace and Human Rights. 5 (1): 1–31. ISSN 1021-8858.
  39. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (2010). "Movement-Related Rights in the Context of Internal Displacement". Studies in Transnational Legal Policy. 41: 9.
  40. ^ Oloka-Onyango, Joe (1995). "'Taming' the President: Some Critical Reflections on the Executive and the Separation of Powers in Uganda". East African Journal of Peace and Human Rights. 2 (2): 189–208.
  41. ^ Oloka, -Onyango Joe (2009-03-01). "Age-based discrimination and the rights of the elderly in Uganda: conference paper". ESR Review: Economic and Social Rights in South Africa. 10 (1): 11–14. hdl:10520/EJC33307.
  42. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J.; Tamale, Sylvia (1995). "The Personal Is Political, or Why Women's Rights Are Indeed Human Rights: An African Perspective on International Feminism". Human Rights Quarterly. 17 (4): 691–731. doi:10.1353/hrq.1995.0037. S2CID 144363840.
  43. ^ Oloka-Onyango, J. (2005). "Liberalization Without Liberation: Understanding the Paradoxes of Opening the Political Spaces in Uganda". Rochester, NY. doi:10.2139/ssrn.3617301. SSRN 3617301. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  44. ^ Oloka-Onyango, Joe; Gariyo, Zie; Muhereza, Frank (1993). "Pastoralism, Crisis and Transformation in Karamoja". Drylands Issue Paper. 43: 1–26. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
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