User:Eboeosuji

Chile Eboe-Osuji (born 1962), Canadian barrister, international lawyer, civil litigator, criminal defence counsel, human rights lawyer, constitutional lawyer and law teacher.

Currently in private practice as counsel in the prestigious Canadian law firm of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Eboe-Osuji joined the firm from the United Nations where he worked for eight years at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as a prosecutor and later as a senior advising counsel to the judges.

As a prosecutor at the ICTR, Eboe-Osuji was the lead prosecution counsel in the trial of Laurent Semanza, a former Rwandan mayor convicted by the Tribunal for genocide and various counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Eboe-Osuji also led prosecution team during the preparation and commencement of the case against Col Theoneste Bagosora, Brig-Gen Gratien Kabiligi, Lt-Col Anatole Nsengiyumva and Maj Aloys Ntabakuze. In the annals of international criminal justice, the trial of Col Bagosora et al is regarded as the Rwanda Genocide Tribunal's version of the Milosevic trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Following his opening statement in the Bagosora case, Eboe-Osuji resigned from that case and from the Office of the Prosecutor and took up appointment as a senior advisor in the Chambers of the Tribunal.

Eboe-Osuji joined the United Nations in 1997 from a private legal advocacy practice in which he succesfully represented clients in cases before all levels of court in Canada, including the Court of Appeal for Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada. In 1995, he led a team of lawyers in an unsuccessful constitutional challenge against the repeal of the Ontario Employment Equity Act by the Government of Premier Mike Harris.

His legal career began early in his native Nigeria where he first qualified in 1986 and practised briefly before his expatriation to Canada in 1988. A notable achievement in the early years of his career in Nigeria was his successful defence of three men in a capital punishment case.

Following his arrival in Canada, he attended McGill University and obtained a Master of Laws degree and underwent a course of legal studies required for his integration into the Canadian legal profession. He was called to the Bars of Ontario and of British Columbia in 1993.

Eboe-Osuji is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa. He has authored many articles and is a frequent guest speaker on the subject of international criminal law.

He lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children.