Osai Ojigho

Osai Ojigho is a human rights expert, gender equality advocate, lawyer, and civil society leader with extensive experience working on working on the African Human Rights System, gender justice and good governance. Currently, the Country Director of Amnesty International Nigeria. In 2014, she brought with other partners, a case of gender discrimination and gender-based violence before the ECOWAS court to challenge state agents abuse of women. This led to the first judgment (Dorothy Njemanze v Nigeria) on the Maputo Protocol by a regional court in 2017. She was named one of 100 Most Influential Civil Society Leaders in Nigeria in 2021.

I am living my truth because it is shining light to the many possibilities of what career paths are available for women in law. Visibility is important if we are to showcase our experiences and talents unapologetically in ways which are in no way modest, because we are entering a season of enlightenment for women in law practitioners who lack the burdens of the pioneers in the profession but carry the torch of a promise of an inclusive future.

A profession seeking justice for others must also look inwards that gender justice is a reality for women in law. We need experts in the law who are women but we also need women human rights defenders who understand the law.