Malawi nominates law professor Maluwa for top UN post

Malawi has nominated university law professor Tiyanjana Maluwa, as its candidate for a position on the UN International Law Commission.

Maluwa is the associate dean for international affairs at Penn State Law in the United States and holds the H. Laddie Montague Chair in Law and a doctorate in international law from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

He will compete with 30 other nationals and if elected, Maluwa would serve a five-year term beginning January 2012.

According to a report on Maravi Post, Malawi Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mutharika said it “will be an honour to all Malawians” if Maluwa succeeds.

Maluwa: Nominated

“We’ve done what we can to support him,” Mutharika said. “Later he will go to the United Nations and our mission there will facilitate meetings for him to meet several countries to increase our chance of making it to this distinguished body.”

Maluwa told Nyasa Times that he is honoured by the nomination and is excited about “the opportunity that serving on the commission would present.”

The Malawian candidature was endorsed by the African Union at its summit in January this year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

According to Penn State Law website, Maluwa has PhD in law obtained at the University of Cambridge. He earlier obtained law degree at the University of Malawi and master’s degree in international law at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

The website said Maluwa is recognized internationally for his extensive scholarly writings and expertise in public international law and human rights. He has been called upon to serve as a special expert and consultant to the United Nations, the AU and other organizations and was invited by the Swedish government to join the international jury charged with the task of selecting the winner of the Stockholm International Prize in Criminology.

Maluwa most recently accepted appointment as legal expert to a High Level Panel on Darfur convened by the African Union to make recommendations on how best to comprehensively address issues of accountability, justice, and national reconciliation and healing in Darfur.

Prior to joining the AU and, subsequently, the United Nations, he was a Professor of International Law at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and Extraordinary Professor of Law at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

He has written edited and contributed chapters to a number of books and is the author of numerous articles. In 1997, he was asked by the United Nations to serve as the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Nigeria following the execution of the famed poet-activist Ken Saro Wiwa.

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