Phoebe Okowa

Phoebe Nyawade Okowais a Kenyan lawyer and Professor ofPublic International Lawand Director of Graduate Studies atQueen Mary University of London. In 2021 she was elected to theInternational Law Commissionfor a period of five years, starting January 1, 2023,becoming the firstAfricanwoman to serve as a member of the Commission.In 2016 she was appointed a Member of thePermanent Court of ArbitrationatThe HaguebyKenya.An advocate of theHigh Court of Kenya, she has acted as counsel and consultant to governments and non-governmental organisations on questions of international law before domestic and international courts including theInternational Court of Justice.
The government of Kenya nominated Okowa for election to the UN International Law Commissionin May 2021.She was co-nominated by theUnited Kingdomand endorsed by theAfrican Union.Okowa received 162 votes in theUnited Nations General Assembly.
The International Law Commission (ILC) is a body of experts responsible for helping develop and codify international law. Under the ILC Statute, its members “shall be persons of recognised competence in international law”.It is composed of 34 individuals who are elected by the United Nations General Assembly for a five year term.
Okowa was born inKerichoon 1 January 1965 toLuoparents. She graduated at the top of her class with aBachelor of Law(LLB) with First Class Honours from theUniversity of Nairobi, Kenya in 1987. Okowa was the first woman to be awarded a first-class honours degree in the history of the Faculty of Law of the University of Nairobi.She was called to the Kenyan Bar as an Advocate in 1990.
Okowa then studied atWadham College, Oxfordon a Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholarship, obtaining the degree ofBachelor of Civil Law(BCL) in 1990. She completed her doctoral thesis (D.Phil.) at Oxford in 1994 under the supervision of Professor SirIan Brownlie, theChichele Professor of International Law. Hermonographon State Responsibility for Transboundary Air Pollutionpublished byOxford University Pressremains the definitive work on the legal challenges that environmental harm presents for traditional methods of accountability in International Law.
Okowa taughtPublic International Law, BritishConstitutional LawandPrivate International Lawas a member of the Faculty of Law at theUniversity of Bristol. She has held visiting appointments at theUniversity of Lille,University of Helsinki,Stockholm UniversityandWZB BerlinSocial Science Center for Global Constitutionalism and has lectured for theUnited Nationsat its Regional Course on International Law for Africa. In 2011 and 2015 she was Hauser Global Visiting Professor of Law atNew York University School of Law.
Okowa is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the African Yearbook of International and Comparative Law and of the Advisory Board of the African Association of International Law.She is a member ofThe Society of Legal Scholars.
Okowa sits on the International Advisory Board of the Stockholm Centre for International Law and the Executive Committee of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S).
Okowa was appointed byPrinceton University's Center for Human Valuesas a Fellow in Law and Normative Thinkingfor 2024-25.
Okowa was awardedanHonoraryDoctorateinLawby the University of Stockholm in 2024.
Okowa has acted as counsel and consultant to governments and non-governmental organisations on questions of international law before domestic and international courts including before theInternational Court of Justice, involving cases concerning the application of theConvention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,maritime delimitations, theLegal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965,andLegal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem,Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change,and before theInternational Tribunal for the Law of the SeainRequest for an Advisory Opinion submitted by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law.
She was appointed the Chair of the International Law Commission's Drafting Committee for its Seventy-fifth Session (2024).