Yash Pal Ghai

Yash Pal Ghai is the Director of the Katiba Institute in Nairobi. Formerly he was the head of the UNDP Constitution Advisory Support Unit in Nepal, and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia. Mr. Ghai has had an international academic career as a professor of law and as a constitutional expert, beginning with the establishment of East Africa’s first law school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In 1989, he was appointed Professor of Public Law at the University of Hong Kong. He has advised in over twenty countries on constitution making and other issues, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Fiji, Somalia, Libya, and Kenya (where he chaired the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC) from 2002-2004, as well as the National Constitutional Conference (“Bomas”). His research interests include constitutionalism and human rights, ethnic conflicts, sociology of law, and federalism and autonomy. He has published extensively on public law, human rights, and ethnic conflicts. In 2011, Professor Ghai established the Katiba Institute to promote knowledge and studies of constitutionalism and to facilitate the implementation of Kenya’s new constitution. Its activities include publications on the Constitution, workshops on constitutional issues, public interest litigation, development of the legal and judicial system, establishment of county governments, land reform, review of legislative bills to implement the Constitution, and promoting the participation of Kenyans in public affairs. It works in partnership with a number of Kenyan and overseas civil, academic, and state institutions.