Prof Christopher Mbazira

Christopher Mbazira is a Professor of Law and Principal (Dean), Emeritus of the School of Law, Makerere University. He is also the Coordinator of the Public Interest Law Clinic (PILAC) and a founding member of the Network of Public Interest Lawyers (NETPIL). He previously chaired of the Rule of Law and Strategic Litigation Committee of the Uganda Law Society and was one of 9 academics who approached the Supreme Court of Uganda and were admitted as amici in the 2016 Presidential Election Petition. Prof. Mbazira has written and spoken widely on the subject of socio-economic rights in the context of the judicial application of these rights as well as public interest litigation. He is the author of the title: Litigating socio-economic rights in South Africa: A choice between corrective and distributive justice (2009) and several journal articles. Since 2018, Prof Mbazira has supported the National Planning Authority (NPA) in integrating the Human Rights Based Approach in the country’s development agenda. Prof Mbazira has consulted with international agencies, including the United Nations on human rights and governance matters. In 2021, Prof Mbazira won the Uganda Law Society Award for his distinguished service in legal education in Uganda. Prof Mbazira has been key in introducing the use of the clinical methodology of teaching the law and building a community of public interest lawyers in Uganda. This is in addition to growing public interest litigation in Uganda. Prof Mbazira holds an LLB from Makerere University, an LLM in Human Rights from the University of Pretoria and a PhD from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. In 2015, Christopher was a co-recipient of the Vera Chirwa Award given by the Center for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, for his outstanding contribution in the promotion of socio-economic rights in Africa. Prof Mbazira has interfaced with the African Human Rights systems and has excellent knowledge of its workings. Prof Mbazira has previously served as a member of the Uganda Law Council, a body that regulates the legal profession in Uganda and also sat on the Law Development Centre (LDC).