Barney Afako

Barney Afako is a lawyer with vast experience in conflict mediation, transitional justice and human rights. In June 2018, he was selected as the inaugural IFIT Alex Boraine Fellow: a fellowship established in honour of IFIT’s first Board president, Dr Boraine, who passed away in 2018.

Afako has worked in the fields of human rights, refugee law, criminal justice and transition issues in several countries. He was the Chief Legal advisor for the Juba Peace Talks between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (2006-8), developing and drafting the agreement on Reconciliation and Accountability, the first efforts to address transitional justice in an ongoing conflict in which the International Criminal Court was active.

From 2009, he advised the African Union Panel on Darfur (AUPD), chaired by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, and was responsible for drafting the justice recommendations of the AUPD’s report. From 2010, he advised the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan and South Sudan, which facilitated negotiations of the Cooperation Agreement between Sudan and South Sudan and supported responses to conflict in the Horn of Africa.

Afako has been a member of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan since 2018; for several years was a member of the United Nations’ Standby Team of Senior Mediation Advisors, supporting peace processes in Yemen, Afghanistan, Western Balkans, Great Lakes and Horn of Africa, among others. In Uganda, he has advised the Government, and particularly the Amnesty Commission, on conflict resolution issues.

He is the author of several publications on justice and peace issues.