Honorable Mohamed Chande Othman is a Muslim legal scholar from Tanzania who is highly respected internationally for his deep understanding of political, legal and other dimensions of East Africa and the continent more broadly.
He served as the Chief Justice of Tanzania from December 2010 to January 2017 after serving as both a High Court and Appeal Court Judge.
Justice Othman's previous experience includes that of Prosecutor General of East Timor, Chief of Prosecutions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Senior Legal and Justice Reform Advisor for UNDP Cambodia, Chairman of the Presidential Commission on Inquiry on the Relocation of Pastoralists and their Livestock from Usanga Valley in Ihefu, and Public Prosecutor for the Bank of Tanzania. In addition, he has also worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Under the flag of the United Nations, Justice Othman has served as:
· Head of the UN Independent Panel of Experts, charged with the assessment and examination of new information relating to the death of the former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld (2015).
· Member of the UN Human Rights Council's High-Level Commission of Inquiry into the Situation in Lebanon following the Israel-Lebanon Armed Conflict in 2006.
· The UN Human Rights Council's Independent Expert on the human rights situation in the Sudan (2009-2010).
Justice Othman serves on the Africa Group for Justice and Accountability. He is a member of AKU-ISMC's Academic Development Committee.
His publications include books and peer-reviewed papers on International Humanitarian Law, Refugee Law, Criminal Law and Evidence, and Peacekeeping.
Justice Othman received his LLB (Hon) from the University of Dar es Salaam in 1974 and an M.A. from Webster University in Geneva in 1982.
Justice Othman joined the AKU Board in 2017.
