Isha Lanla Dyfan (born 1955) is a

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

an lawyer who became the United Nation's Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia in 2020. She has previously worked for the

United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur The African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (known by its acronym UNAMID) was a joint African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission formally approved by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1769 on 31 ...

and

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

Life

Dyfan was born in

Kenema Based on the 2021 national mid-term census, Kenema has a population of 255,110. making it the second most populous city in Sierra Leone after Freetown, and the largest city in the country's Eastern Province, Sierra Leone, Eastern Province. Kenema ...

in Sierra Leone in 1955. She attended the University of London and she was accepted at the bar in the UK in 1984. She was also accepted in Sierra Leone and she practiced law for over twelve years there until the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

made her leave for America. The Sierra Leone Civil War lasted from 1991 to 2002. During that time Dyfan, fellow lawyer

Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff is a Sierra Leonean lawyer and activist. She was involved in the women's movement that helped to restore democracy to her country. Life Jusu-Sheriff was the daughter of Gladys and Salia Jusu-Sheriff. Her four siblings were S ...

and

Patricia Kabbah Patricia Kabbah (; 17 March 1933 – 8 May 1998) was a Sierra Leonean lawyer who served as First Lady of Sierra Leone from 1996 to 1998. She was the first wife of Sierra Leone's third president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. She is widely regarded as one of ...

worked with groups like the Mano River Women's Peace Network to ensure that wider international community were aware of the abuses that were taking place in Sierra Leone. She lived in Sudan's

Darfur Darfur ( ; ) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju () while ruled by the Daju, who migrated from Meroë , and it was renamed Dartunjur () when the Tunjur ruled the area. ...

region when she worked for UNAMID, the

for over four years where she became the Chief of their Human Rights Section. She started work at

in 2018 and she became their Director of International Advocacy. In May 2020 she was identified as the United Nations Human Rights Council's Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Somalia. These experts are appointed by OHCHR for three years and they are unpaid. In 2023 there were 60 of these experts. She was one of the fourteen experts who were looking at particular countries. In May 2024 she ended a third visit to Somalia. Attacks by Al-Shabaab were still taking a toll particularly on civilians. She supported the government's plans but urged them to deal with gender based violence. She highlighted climate change and the four million Somalian children who were displaced. After the five day visit she published her findings and took part in a Q&A with journalists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyfan, Isha 1955 births Living people People from Kenema Sierra Leonean lawyers Alumni of the University of London United Nations special rapporteurs