Midcoast Forum on Foreign Relations

Dr. Swithin Munyantwali

Monday, April 13, 2015

Topic: Chinese Involvement in Africa. Is this a true partnership?

Dr. Swithin Munyantwali is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the International Law Institute African Centre for Legal Excellence (ILI-ACLE). Since its establishment in 1997 years ago, Mr. Munyantwali has spearheaded the centre’s operations which serve a broad constituency of government, public sector and non-governmental organizations through technical assistance and training. Under Mr. Munyantwali’s leadership the ILI-ACLE has successfully implemented significant rule of law assignments of major bilateral and multilateral donors and regional governments such as in court restructuring and upgrading, law drafting, parliamentary strengthening, and various capacity building activities. The centre’s interventions have benefitted over 10,000 members of the bar and bench and other related professionals in over 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, to mention but a few. The Centre which has an office in Lesotho, is currently implementing rule of law projects in 22 African countries, including in Liberia towards strengthening the judiciary through the training of over 3,000 court officers and judicial staff.

Mr. Munyantwali is also an advisory board member to international entities such as United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, and the ABA-UNDP Advisory Board Centre in Washington, DC. He has also served as an advisor and counsel to Le Boeuf Lamb Greene and MacRae, and is currently serving as counsel to Patton Boggs – on their African initiatives. Most recently he served as an international arbitrator under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce on a major East Africa investor-state dispute. He is a Non-Executive Director to the Board of Barclays Bank Uganda, where he also serves as the Chairman of the Board Human Resources and Compensation Committee, and previously as the Chair of the Board Audit Committee. He was recently appointed by the Under-Secretary General of the UN Habitat to a special committee advising on pro-poor housing investment initiatives by UN Habitat. On the invitation of the Secretary General of Interpol, Mr. Munyantwali serves on the Informal Board of Experts Bioterrorism Prevention Program. Most recently he was appointed to the Board of the International Law Institute in Washington, DC.

Mr. Munyantwali has served as a Guest Professor at the Macau University of Science and Technology, as well as the City University of Hong Kong Law School. He has also lectured at Case Western Reserve Law School, University of Pacific McGeorge, Loyola Law School (Rome) and at the World Affairs Council in Sacramento, California. Mr. Munyantwali was educated at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (B.Sc Criminal Justice)(1998). He obtained his Juris Doctor at Case Western Reserve Law School (1992); and his Masters in International Law (LLM) at Georgetown University Law Centre, Washington, D.C. (1993). He is a licensed and admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.