Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh, FRSC

Bonny Ibhawoh (M.A. Ibadan; Ph.D Dalhousie) teaches Global Human Rights in the Department of History and the Centre for Global Peace, Justice and Health. He also teaches in the McMaster Arts & Science Program and the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition. He is the founding Director of the McMaster Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice, and the Project Director of Participedia and the Confronting Atrocity Project. He is an Affiliate Member of the Mary Heersink School of Global Health and Social Medicine, McMaster University.

Dr. Ibhawoh has taught at universities in Africa, Europe and North America. Previously, he was a professor at Brock University, Canada; professor in the Department of Political Science at University of North Carolina at Asheville; Human Rights Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, New York; Research Fellow at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Copenhagen and Associate Member of the Centre for African Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He was Visiting  Professor of Human Rights at The Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, University of Texas at Austin. He has also taught at Ambrose Alli University, Covenant University, the University of Lagos and the University of Pretoria. Dr Ibhawoh is an Expert-Rapporteur of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development.

His research interests are global human rights, peace/conflict studies, legal and imperial history. His articles on these themes have appeared in historical and interdisciplinary journals – Human Rights Quarterly, Journal of Human Rights Practice, The Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, the Journal of Global History, and Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology (Journal of the American Psychological Association).

He has authored and edited several books on human rights and transitional justice, including Human Rights in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2018); Imperial Justice (Oxford University Press, 2013), Truth Commissions and State Building (MQUP, 2023) and Imperialism and Human Rights (SUNY Press, 2007) [named Choice Outstanding Academic Title]. Dr. Ibhawoh is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a recipient of the McMaster Student Union Teaching Award and the Nelson Mandela Distinguished Africanist Award. He serves on the Board of several international human rights organizations, including the Advisory Board of the Amnesty International Archives.