The Director General of National Institute of Advance Legal Studies (NIALS), Professor Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan, has been selected into the membership of the Global Experts on Sustainable Development Policy, Law and Practice by the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs (UNDESA) , New York and the International Science Council (ISC) Paris.
The group of Experts who will oversea the Review of the Draft 2023 Global Sustainable Development Report scheduled for September 2022, will be Chaired by Prof. Dr. Shirlee Harper of Canada, university of Alberta.
Professor Ladan, currently the Director General of the National Institute of Advance Legal Studies, is a Professor of law with 35 years (1987-2022) experience in teaching, research, publications, mentorship and supervision at the Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
As the former Director, Legislative Support Services at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, National Assembly, (2017-2019), Professor Ladan’s wealth of knowledge and experience will be of immense importance in this global assignment.
Going down memory lane, Professor Ladan has in the last 24 years represented Nigeria as a Human Rights expert in the defence of Nigeria’s periodic country reports at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and Geneva, at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris; African Human Rights Commission in the Gambia and at the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as well as at various ECOWAS Independent Technical and Governmental Experts/ Ministerial Meetings.
He has also consulted widely for UN Agencies like UNICEF, UNDP, UNEP Kenya, ILO, UNHCR, several Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies and ECOWAS Commission in Nigeria.
Professor Ladan is a member of the Nigerian Council for Legal Education, World Jurist Association, Washington DC, USA; IUCN Academy of and Commission on Environmental Law; a Hubert Humphrey Fellow, USA, and member, Nigerian Society of International Law, among others.
Prof. Ladan has been the Deputy Chair, National Committee on the Implementation of International Humanitarian Law Treaties (IHL) and the National Committee on the Justice Sector Reform Implementation Committee since 2011.
With the selection of Professor Ladan into the membership of yet another global task on Sustainable Development
Policy, Law and Practice, this Giant of academics, of theoretical speculations and practical application of knowledge, will be a square peg in a square hole.
By Samson Yaki