Dr. Irekpitan Okukpon

Biography

Irekpitanis a Lecturer at the School of Law, Faculty of Management, Law and SocialSciences (FOMLSSS), University of Bradford, United Kingdom. She is an astuteacademic with 12-years’ experience in teaching and research. She has adoctorate degree in Environmental Law from the University of Cape Town, SouthAfrica, an LL.M degree inMarine & Environmental Law (with Distinction) from the same Institution,and a first degree in law from the University of Benin, Nigeria.

Prior to her employment at the Universityof Bradford, she was an Associate Research Professor at the Nigerian Instituteof Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS) Lagos, Nigeria (February to August 2022) andDeputy Director, Continuing Legal Education, Consultancy and Regional EconomicIntegration Law (CLECREIL) NIALS (March to September 2022). She also served ina triple capacity as Coordinator, Continuing Legal Education Division, NIALSfrom September 2019 to May 2022; Acting Head, Department of Public Law (NIALS)from January 2020 to March 2022; and Special Assistant to the Director-General,NIALS (September 2016 to August 2022).

Her core areas of research includeInternational Environmental Law, Marine Law, Human Rights and InternationalMigration Law. She served as Lead Desk and Field Researcher on a NIALS/BritishCouncil Research Project titled ‘Dealing with the Past: Justice, Reconciliationand Healing in North East Nigeria’ in 2017; as Project Team Member/Secretary/Editor,Component C, NIALS/MacArthur Foundation Implementation Project on theAdministration of Criminal Justice Act(ACJA) 2015 from 2018 to 2022. She haspublished various over 33 articles and book chapters in foreign and localjournals and books, and has made over 50 presentations at various fora inNigeria and overseas.

As an experienced Researcher, PolicyAnalyst and Legislative Drafter, she served as a Consultant for the HeinrichBoll Foundation/Environmental Resource Centre on Improving Environmental andSocial Impact Assessment in Nigeria (2016 -2019) and the Senate of the NationalAssembly Nigeria on review of draft bills (2018). She currently acts as arecurring Consultant with the Environmental Resource Centre (ERC) Nigeria; GlobalInitiative against Illegal Migration (GIAM) Nigeria; United Nations DevelopmentProgramme (UNDP) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Nigeria.