Swithin Munyantwali

director, International Law Institute African Centre for Legal Excellence

Swithin Munyantwali is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the International Law Institute African Centre for Legal Excellence (ILI-ACLE) based in Kampala, Uganda. The ILI-ACLE is Africa’s premier legal infrastructure development institution serving a broad constituency of government, public sector and non-governmental organisations through technical assistance and training. Since its establishment 14 years ago, the ILI-ACLE has competitively bid and been engaged by major bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors and regional governments to implement a large portfolio including: court restructuring and upgrading, law drafting, parliamentary strengthening, and various capacity building activities benefitting in excess of 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 and will soon open an office in Liberia towards strengthening the judiciary through the training of over 3,000 court officers and judicial staff. Mr. Munyantwali is also an advisor and Board member to international entities such as UNCTAD, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, and the ABA-UNDP Advisory Board Centre in Washington, DC. He has also served as an advisor to major US entities on strategic investments in Africa. 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 special 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. 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. Mr. Munyantwali obtained his education at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (B.Sc Criminal Justice, 1998); his Juris Doctor at Case Western Reserve Law School (1992); and his Masters in International Law (LLM) at Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. (1993). He is a licensed U.S. lawyer, admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.