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and International Courts

African Women

Click below to read our background paper:

African Women Judges on International Courts: Symbolic or Substantive Gains?

Lombe P. Chibesakunda

Common Court for Eastern & Southern Africa (COMESA)

ZAMBIA

Lombe Phyllis Chibesakunda was born on May 5, 1944, in Zambia, then called Northern Rhodesia. She attended Chipembi Girls’ School where she became the head girl and later studied at the National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) in Lusaka. Lombe continued to read law at Gray’s Inn in England and obtained a post-graduate diploma in International Law at the Australian National University.

In 1969, Lombe became the first State Advocate in the Ministry of Legal Affairs and was a parliamentary candidate for the Matero constituency and Solicitor-General in the Ministry of Legal Affairs. Having garnered much experience as a practitioner with the Ministry for six years, she joined the diplomatic corps in 1975 serving as ambassador to Japan. She also served as the Zambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, the Holy Sea, and the Netherlands from 1978 to 1981. Justice Chibesakunda served in various judicial/adjudicatory positions presiding over both criminal and civil cases and supervising magistrates from 1981 to 1997.

Judge Chibesakunda's vast experience led to her appointment as a Supreme Court judge in 1997 during which time she concurrently chaired the Permanent Human Rights Commission of Zambia mandated to monitor the implementation of international human rights obligations by the Government. Although the candidature of Judge Lombe as a judge for the International Criminal Court was withdrawn by the Zambian government in 2009, she was appointed as the Acting Chief Justice of Zambia in 2012. Out of candidates presented by ten member states, Judge Chibesakunda polled nine votes resulting in her election as the first female Judge President for the COMESA Court of Justice in 2015. She is recognized for participating in the Lancaster talks which ushered in the independence of Zimbabwe as well as campaigned for the end of Apartheid rule in South Africa.

Mary Kasango

Common Court for Eastern & Southern Africa (COMESA)

KENYA

Mary Muhanji Kasango is a Kenyan High Court Judge who was appointed to the bench in 2003. She received her undergraduate education at the Middlesex University in London and was subsequently called to the Bar, at Lincoln’s Inn in England in 1979. On her return to Kenya, she was called to the Kenyan Bar after completing the Kenya School of Law. Prior to her call to the Bench, Mary worked as a part-time lecturer at the Kenya School of Law teaching Trust Accounts.

As an attorney, she had her own law firm under the name Muhanji-Kasango Advocates. Mary holds a Master of Laws in Intellectual Property Law from the Golden Gate University of Law. Her thesis focused on Kenya's encounter with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and discusses events surrounding Kenya’s 1963 independence, the country’s institutions before the 2007 general elections, and post 2007 elections. Thirteen years after her appointment to the Kenyan bench, Judge Mary Kasango was elected to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Court of Justice - First Instance Division.

Justice Mary Kasango’s judgment In the Matter of the Estate of M’mukindia M’ndegwa (deceased) is considered a positive judgment concerning succession by The Equal Rights Trust in their report addressing discrimination and inequality in Kenya. In 2019, she was listed as a recipient of the presidential award – the Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (M.B.S.).

Dupe Atoki

ECOWAS Court of Justice

NIGERIA

Honorable Justice Catherine Dupe Atoki is a Nigerian lawyer and judge of the ECOWAS Court of Justice. She has been working in legal practice for over forty years. Justice Atoki received her Bachelor of Laws from the Nigeria Law School, and her LLB from the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. She also has an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in International Human Rights Law from the American University Washington College of Law.

Justice Atoki has served as a senior lecturer in Business and Administrative Law at the State Polytechnic Kaduna, a member of the Nigerian Human Right Commission, and as a member of the Federal Government Presidential Committee on the review of laws discriminatory of women, as well as the Committee on the reform of investment law. Additionally, she has also served as a legal consultant for the African Union, as a member of the election monitoring/observer team for several countries, and as commissioner for the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. She was a member of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission and has helped draft several legal documents with the African Union.

She was the first Nigerian woman to be appointed to the role of Chair at the African Commission and has used her position to make sure Africa’s voice is heard at the United Nations. At the Commission, she is the rapporteur on prison and detention in Africa and the chairperson on the Committee for the prevention of torture. Justice Atoki has delivered papers on the topic of human rights, and she has a newspaper column titled ‘The African Torture Watch’.

Awa Nana Daboya

ECOWAS Court of Justice

TOGO

Justice Awa Nana Daboya is a Togolese lawyer and former judge with over 30 years of legal and political experience. Justice Daboya has served her country in the legal and political spheres for over 30 years.
She began her career as a lawyer before becoming a magistrate, an examining magistrate, and dean of examining magistrates. Justice Daboya then became a marriage and guardianship judge before being elected to the Court of Appeal. She has served as President of the Togolese Court of Appeal, and as chair of the Independent National Electoral Commission of Togo. Justice Daboya spent ten years serving as a judge of the ECOWAS Regional Court, two of which she spent serving as President. She also served as Mediator of the Republic and chaired the High Commission for Reconciliation and Strengthening of National Unity (HCRRUN) in Togo in 2014. Justice Daboya received training in Cameroon, France, and the USA.

Amina Mallé Sanogo

ECOWAS Court of Justice

MALI

Aminata Mallé Sanogo is a Malian politician and magistrate who was appointed Mediator of the Republic of Mali. Sanogo received her Master’s degree in Legal Sciences from the University of Dakar, and a Magistrate’s diploma from the National Center for Magistrates’ Training in Bamako, Mali. She worked in litigation for the General Secretariat of the Government before becoming an examining magistrate in 1983.

As a magistrate, she was put in charge of the cases of minors at the Bamako Court of First Instance. She also served as a substitute of the Public Prosecutor from 1985 to 1989, as examining magistrate of the 2nd Cabinet of Bamako’s Court of First Instance from 1989 to 1991, and as examining magistrate of the 1st Cabinet at the Special State Security Court in 1991. She then became President of the seconded section of the Court of First Instance of Commune IV of Bamako from 1992 to 1994.

From 1994 to 2000, she was President of the Commercial Court of Bamako, and she briefly served as President of the Court of First Instance of Commune III of Bamako towards the end of 2000. In 2001, she represented Mali at the ECOWAS Court of Justice, where she served as judge-advisor before becoming president of the Court from 2007 to 2009. She served as technical advisor to the Prime Minister’s office in August 2010, where she was in charge of the Governance Unit, and in 2015, she became Minister of Justice and Human Rights. She served in this capacity until July 2016 and became Secretary General on January 9th, 2017. Ms. Sanogo was appointed Mediator of the Republic of Mali on October 13th, 2020.

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