Joshua Joseph Niyo
Joshua Joseph Niyo (LinkedIn) is Head of Unit and Senior Legal Expert – Africa at the International Humanitarian Law Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, where he leads the Centre’s work across priority conflict contexts on the continent. He oversees regional programmes and provides strategic legal guidance to humanitarian organisations, UN actors, diplomatic missions, and civil society on the application of international humanitarian law (IHL) in complex armed conflicts, including in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Mali, and South Sudan.
Dr. Niyo is an international legal practitioner and academic with over 15 years of experience across Africa, Europe, and North America. His expertise spans public international law, IHL, international human rights law (IHRL), and international criminal law, with a particular focus on armed non-State actors, proxy warfare, territorial control, detention, and accountability in armed conflicts. He has worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Human Rights Watch, and within the United Nations system, including the UN Human Rights Council and UN Human Rights Committee.
Dr. Niyo holds a PhD in International Law (magna cum laude) from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, an LLM in IHL and human rights from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and an LLB from Uganda Christian University. He has served as an adjunct lecturer in IHL and IHRL at UCLA, UC Irvine, and Pepperdine University, and was a Swiss National Science Foundation Visiting Researcher. In 2019, he received the AHRI Best Conference Paper Prize for his research on armed non-State actors.
