Makau W. Mutua
Dean, SUNY Distinguished Professor Floyd H. and Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar
LL.B., University of Dar-es-Salaam, 1983
LL.M., University of Dar-es-Salaam, 1984
LL.M., Harvard Law School, 1985
S.J.D., Harvard Law School, 1987
University at Buffalo Law School
The State University of New York
319 O'Brian
Hall, North Campus
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
Phone:(716) 645-2052
Faculty Assistant:
Sandra Conti, 524 O'Brian Hall, Phone: (716) 645-2091
Timothy Conti, 319 O'Brian Hall, Phone: (716) 645-2052
Biography:
Makau Mutua is Dean, SUNY Distinguished Professor and the Floyd H. & Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. He is the Director of the Human Rights Center and teaches international human rights, international business transactions, and international law. Professor Mutua has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, the University of Iowa College of Law, the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, and the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica.
He was educated at the University of Nairobi, the University of Dar-es-Salaam, and at Harvard Law School, where he obtained a Doctorate of Juridical Science in 1987. Professor Mutua was Co-Chair of the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law.
In 2002-03, while on sabbatical in Kenya, Professor Mutua was appointed by the Government of Kenya as Chairman of the Task Force on the Establishment of a Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission. The Task Force recommended a truth commission for Kenya. During the same time, Professor Mutua was a delegate to the National Constitutional Conference, the forum that produced a contested draft constitution for Kenya.
Professor Mutua is the author of Human Rights: A Political and Cultural Critique (2002). He has written numerous scholarly articles exploring topical subjects in international law, human rights, and religion. These include "The Ideology of Human Rights," "Hope and Despair for a New South Africa: the Limits of Rights Discourse," "The Banjul Charter and the African Cultural Fingerprint: an Evaluation of the Language of Duties," and "Why Redraw the Map of Africa: a Moral and Legal Inquiry" published in various law reviews. He has written human rights reports for the United Nations and leading NGOs. He has authored dozens of articles for popular publications such as the New York Times, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Daily Nation, East African Standard, and the Washington Post.
Previously, Professor Mutua was the Associate Director at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program. He was also the Director of the Africa Project at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. He serves as the Chairman of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and sits on the boards of several international organizations, such as Global Rights, and academic journals, such as the Leiden Journal of International Law. He is a frequent commentator on politics, human rights, law, and current affairs in the print and electronic media.
He has conducted numerous human rights, diplomatic, and rule of law missions to countries in Africa, Latin America, and Europe. He has lectured and spoken at public fora in many parts of the world, including Japan, Brazil, France, and Ethiopia.
Selected Publications:
Kenya's Quest for Democracy: Taming Leviathan (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008).
"Human Rights in Africa: the Limited Promise of Liberalism," 51 African Studies Review 17-39 (2008).
Human Rights NGOs in East Africa: Political and Normative Tensions (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).
"Beyond Juba: Does Uganda Need a National Truth and Reconciliation Process?," 13 Buffalo Human Rights Law Review 401-414 (2007).
"Change in the Human Rights Universe," 20 Harvard Human Rights Journal 3 (2007).
"Standard Setting in Human Rights: Critique and Prognosis" 29 Human Rights Quarterly 547-630 (2007).
"The Iraq Paradox: Minority and Group Rights in a Viable Constitution," 54 Buffalo Law Review 927-955 (2006).
Human Rights: A Political and Cultural Critique (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).
"Terrorism and Human Rights: Power, Culture, and Subordination," 8 Buffalo Human Rights Law Review 301-313 (2002).
"Justice Under Siege: The Rule of Law and Judicial Subservience in Kenya," 23 Human Rights Quarterly 96-118 (2001).
"Savages, Victims, and Saviors: the Metaphor of Human Rights," 42 Harvard International Law Journal 201-245 (2001).
"Critical Race Theory and International Law: The View of an Insider-Outsider," 45 Villanova Law Review 841-853 (2000).
"From Nuremberg to the Rwanda Tribunal: Justice or Retribution?," 6 Buffalo Human Rights Law Review 77-91 (2000).
"What is TWAIL?," American Society of International Law, Proceedings of the 94th Annual Meeting 31-39 (2000).
"The African Human Rights Court: A Two-Legged Stool," 21 Human Rights Quarterly 342-363 (1999).
"Returning to My Roots: African 'Religions' and the State," in Proselytization and Communal Self-Determination in Africa 169-190 (Abdullahi An-Na'im, ed., 1999).
"Looking Past the Human Rights Committee: An Argument for De-marginalizing Enforcement," 4 Buffalo Human Rights Law Review 211-260 (1998).
"Hope and Despair for a New South Africa: the Limits of Rights Discourse," 10 Harvard Human Rights Journal 63-114 (1997).
"Never Again: Questioning the Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals," 11 Temple International and Comparative Law Journal 167-187 (1997).
"The Ideology of Human Rights," 36 Virginia Journal of International Law 589-657 (1996). See also "The Ideology of Human Rights: Toward Post-Liberal Democracy?," in Governance and Legitimacy in Africa 109-164 (Kofi Quashigah and Obiora Chinedu Okafor, eds., 1999). See also "Politics and Human Rights: An Essential Symbiosis," in The Role of Law in International Politics 149-175 (Michael Byers, ed., 2000).
"Limitations on Religious Rights: Problematizing Religious Freedom in the African Context," in Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives 417-440 (Johan D. van der Vyver and John Witte, Jr., eds. 1996). Reprinted in 5 Buffalo Human Rights Law Review 75-105 (1999).
"The Banjul Charter and the African Cultural Fingerprint: An Evaluation of the Language of Duties," 35 Virginia Journal of International Law 339-380 (1995). Reprinted in 6 Review of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights 16-48 (1996-97). Translated in "La Charte de Banjul et L'Empreinte de la Culture Africaine: Une Evaluation du Langage des Obligations," 6 La Revue de la Commission des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples 49-73 (1996-97).
"The Interaction Between Human Rights, Democracy and Governance and the Displacement of Populations," International Journal of Refugee Law 37-45 (Special Issue - Summer 1995).
"Putting Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again: the Dilemmas of the African Post-Colonial State," 21 Brooklyn Journal of International Law 505-536 (1995).
"Why Redraw the Map of Africa: A Legal and Moral Inquiry," 16 Michigan Journal of International Law 1113-1176 (1995).
