Jake Okechukwu Effoduh
Jake Okechukwu Effoduh is a Human Rights Lawyer with a demonstrated history of advocacy across domestic and international systems. He has worked within the justice sector in Nigeria, ECOWAS human rights system, the African Human Rights Commission, the United Nations Human Rights Council and the BBC Media Action.
As a strong media personality and human rights advocate, Jake Okechukwu anchored two of Nigeria’s most popular radio programs for 12 years, which was aired on over 100 stations and reached millions of listeners. Anchoring the community radio show Flava on BBC Media Action and Talk Your Own: Make Naija Better programme, earned him several local and international awards including the Future Awards Africa for Community Action and the African Broadcaster of the Year Award in 2016.
Jake Okechukwu holds a master’s degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada and from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Public and International Law from the University of Abuja, Nigeria. He is currently a PhD candidate at York University, Osgoode Hall Law School where his research focuses on the Legitimization of Artificial Intelligence for Human Rights in Anglophone Africa.
Jake currently serves as a Partner at Praxis and Gnosis Law Firm, a legal and business advisory services provider in Abuja, Nigeria. At Praxis & Gnosis, he practices as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. In 2018, he founded Law2Go, a digital library of human rights laws and legal services for Nigeria. He is also a Vanier Scholar at the Osgoode Hall Law School where he researches the Legitimization of Artificial Intelligence in Africa.
Over the years, Jake has gained research and academic experiences from working across 21 African countries and serves on the board of several Non-Governmental Organizations including being a governing board member of a West African human rights fund operating in 12 countries.
Jake is a Climate Reality Leader and Mentor, trained by Former US Vice President, Al Gore. He is as well a Global Shaper and serves on the Equity and Inclusion Steering Committee of the Global Shapers Community. He is listed as a World Economic Forum Expert on Human Rights and sits on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Frontier Risks.
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Jake has held Fellowships at the Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, Mandela School of Governance in South Africa and the Pan-African Lawyers Union in Tanzania. He served as an International Law Scholar with the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Canada, a Distinguished Hubert Humphrey Alum (U.S Department of State, 2016) and a Distinguished Dutch Visitors Alum (the Netherlands, 2016).
Jake has written several articles on human right and he is credited with over four publications. He has delivered lectures at the University of Abuja, Nigeria; York University; University of Oxford; and Ontario Tech University, Canada.