Education: PhD, University of the Witwatersrand; LLM in Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, University of Pretoria; Advanced MA in Peace Mediation, ETH Zürich
Background: Solomon Ayele Dersso is the founding director of Amani Africa, an Ethiopia-based policy research, training and consulting think tank working on African and African Union issues. He is Adjunct Professor at the College of Law and Governance Studies, Addis Ababa University. He has written, published and conducted studies on a wide range of subjects, including transitional justice in Africa. Dersso also serves as a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Transitional Justice. His academic and policy research work on African Union issues included drafting the African Union Transitional Justice Policy adopted by the AU Assembly in February 2019. Dersso is the Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the premier human rights body of the AU, where he serves, among others, as a focal person of the Commission on Transitional Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights. In this capacity, he spearheaded the drafting of the ACHPR Study on Transitional Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights in Africa. Dersso has also been appointed to be a Commissioner of the Ethiopian Commission for Peace and Reconciliation, established in 2019. He is the country rapporteur of the ACHPR for Kenya, South Africa, South Sudan, Seychelles, Nigeria and Tanzania.
Expertise: Ethiopia; Kenya; South Sudan; Nigeria; Tanzania; South Africa; transitional justice; human rights; natural resources governance; peace and security; African Union
