Tonny Raymond Kirabira

Dr Tonny Kirabira

Lecturer In Law

Lecturer

International Law, International Human Rights Law, Transitional justice; International Criminal Prosecution

Department of Law, Justice and Policing , Royal Docks School Of Business And Law

Dr Tonny Raymond Kirabira is a legal practitioner and academic in the fields of public international law, international human rights and international relations.

Dr Kirabira is a legal practitioner and previously worked as a Visiting Professional in the Office of Public Counsel for Victims at the International Criminal Court. He is the current Vice Chair of Uganda Law Society’s Research and Publications Committee and has published widely in the fields of International Law, Human Rights and Transitional Justice. He is a socio-legal scholar published in leading journals and book series, and a member of the Socio-Legal Studies Association and Society of Legal Scholars in the UK. 

Dr Kirabira was a Visiting Fellow at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa-LSE, the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence for International Courts (iCourts) at the University of Copenhagen, KU Leuven Institute of Criminology. He is also a research affiliate with the Refugee Law Initiative at the University of London School of Advanced Study. He has also taught at the University of Greenwich, University of Portsmouth and Royal Holloway, University of London. He is also a guest lecturer in different countries.

Qualifications

  • LLB (Uganda Christian University)
  • Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (Law Development Centre)
  • LLM (University of Notre Dame)
  • PhD (University of Portsmouth)
  • Associate Fellow - Higher Education Academy

Areas Of Interest

  • Law and society justice
  • International law
  • Human rights
  • Policing
  • Criminology
Tonny Raymond Kirabira

CURRENT RESEARCH

Working in the Office of Public Counsel for Victims at the International Criminal Court, Dr Kirabira’s legal opinion was instructive in relation to the sentencing decision in the Ongwen case.
 

Most recent research

Research Centres and groups

Member of:

  • Centre on Justice, Law and Society (CJLS)
  • ImpleMendez Research Group
  • Working Group 1- Investigation, Interviewing, Interrogation Themes
  • Working Group 2: Law, Human Rights, Criminal Justice Themes
  • Working Group 3: Vulnerability Themes
  • Working Group 4: Institutional and Governmental Leadership Themes
  • Member of Uganda Law Society, and East Africa Law Society
     

PUBLICATIONS

COST action CA18228 - Global Atrocity Justice Constellations (Justice360)
Dr Kirabira is among the Working Group of Experts on the Global Atrocity Crimes Constellations (JUSTICE360) project, an EU-funded project under the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST).

He researched and contributed data for the Scoping Survey: States and International Criminal Justice published in 2023. 

COST action CA 22128 -ImpleMendez
Dr Kirabira is among the Working Group of Experts on the project, aimed at Establishing Networks to Implement the Principles of Effective Interviewing for Investigations.

Peer Reviewed Journal articles

  • Tonny R. Kirabira and Leïla Choukroune, Uganda’s Post-war Transitional Justice Process: Have Housing, Land and Property Rights been Restored? Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies (2023).
  • Tonny R. Kirabira, NGO influence in global governance: achieving transitional justice in Uganda and beyond,10(2) Cambridge International Law Journal (2021) pp. 280–299.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira, Technology as a key tool for the prosecution of international crimes: Lessons from Uganda, International Criminal Law Review (2021).
  • Tonny R. Kirabira, Surrender of Ali Kushayb and Paul Gicheru: New perspectives in Africa’s relationship with the ICC,54(1) New York University Journal of International Law and Politics (2021)pp 23-32.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira, The role of NGOs in the domestic implementation of the African Union Transitional Justice Policy Framework: Perspectives from Uganda, Volume 5, African Human Rights Yearbook (2021) pp 180-201.
  • Fiza Lee-Winter and Tonny R, Kirabira, Dossier: The Stateless Rohingya-Practical Consequences of Expulsion,15(2) Genocide Studies and Prevention (2021) pp.1-8.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira and Miracle C. Uche, The International Criminal Court and the Transformation of Post-War Justice in Northern Uganda, Sentio Journal Issue 3 (2021) pp.45-52.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira, Elements of aggravation in ICC sentencing: victim-centred perspectives,13(2) Amsterdam Law Forum (2021) pp. 25-42.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira, Alternative Justice for Victims in Uganda: Learning from the Impact of COVID-19 on the Court System, 1 Radical Review (2021) pp. 44-48.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira, New digital media: freedom of expression and safeguarding journalists in the context of East Africa, 2(1) Cross-Cultural Human Rights Review (2020) pp. 49-71.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira, Establishing accountability for gross human rights violations: an analysis of the Rohingya conflict, 3(1) Journal of International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (2020) pp. 141-158.

Book chapters

  • Mishra, N., Kirabira, T.R., Onwubiko, J. (2023). Intersection of Law, Religion, Customs, and the Problem of Child Marriage in Global South: A Comparative Study of India, Nigeria and Uganda. In: John, M., Devaiah, V.H., Baruah, P., Tundawala, M., Kumar, N. (eds) The Indian Yearbook of Comparative Law 2020. The Indian Yearbook of Comparative Law. Springer, Singapore.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira, 'NGOs and Legitimacy of International Criminal Justice in Uganda,’ in Florian Jeßberger, Kalika Mehta and Leonie Steinl(eds), International Criminal Law – a Counter Hegemonic Project? Asser Press/Springer (International Criminal Justice Series) 2023.
  • Tonny R, Kirabira and Fiza Lee-Winter, ‘Combating domestic violence and sexual and gender-based violence during conflict: The case of the Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh’, in Dongling Zhang and Diana Scharff Peterson (eds). International Responses to Gendered-Based Domestic Violence: Gender-Specific and Socio-Cultural Approaches, Routledge 2023.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira and Rosemary Grey, ‘Ongwen judgement: Violations of reproductive autonomy’, in Kcasey McLoughlin, Rosemary Grey, Louise Chappell and Suzanne Varrall(eds). Feminist Judgments and the ICC, Cambridge University Press (Feminist Judgment Series) 2024. FORTHCOMING.
  • Tonny R. Kirabira and Emma Palmer, ‘NGO roles in achieving Transitional Justice for crimes against the Rohingya’, in Manzoor Hasan, Syed M. Murshed and Priya Pillai(eds), Justice and Accountability for Rohingya, Routledge 2022.

Book Reviews

  • Tonny R. Kirabira, ‘Book Review of Peter Brett and Line Engbo Gissel- Africa and the Backlash Against International Courts (Zed Books, 2020)’, Social & Legal Studies (2021).
  • Tonny R. Kirabira and Anushka Sehmi, ‘Book Review of Christine Schwöbel-Patel, Marketing Global Justice: The Political Economy of International Criminal Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021)’, Leiden Journal of International Law (2022).

Conference presentations

  • Paper presented at the 16th Biennial Meeting of the International Association of Genocide Scholars conference (IAGS) on “Authoritarianism & Genocide: Narratives of Exclusion” held at the University of Barcelona from 10 to 14 July 2023. Title of Paper-Achieving truth in transnational contexts: The Role of criminal justice in the Rohingya conflict.
  • Paper presented at the South Asia International Economic Law Network (SAIELN) third Biennial Conference on Food Security and International Law Critical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 19th – 20th December 2022, National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi, India. Title of Paper - Assessing the Impact of Chinese Agricultural Investments on Socio-Economic Rights in Uganda.
  • Paper presented at the 2021 Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Annual Conference, held at the University of Durham, on 3 September 2021. Title of paper- The International Criminal Court and Ongwen: Role of NGOs in International Criminal Justice.
  • Paper presented at Conference: Power and Brokerage in International Criminal Justice, organised by the Centre of Excellence for International Courts (iCourts) at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen(Denmark), on 4 November 2021  
  • Paper presented at the "International Criminal Justice – a Counter-Hegemonic Project?"-workshop, organised by Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, on  21 and 22 June 2021.

Other selected contributions

  • Tonny R Kirabira, UK and US may recognise the state of Palestine after Gaza war – what this important step would mean, The Conversation, 5 February 2024.
  • Tonny R Kirabira, British king acknowledges colonial atrocities in Kenya – here’s what could happen next, The Conversation, 7 November 2023.
  • Tonny R Kirabira, Kenya and the ICC: law expert answers 4 questions following death of a key lawyer, The Conversation, 30 September 2022.
  • Tonny R Kirabira, Ongwen at the International Criminal Court, ASIL Insights, Volume 25, Issue 7, 19 May 2021.
  • Fiza Lee-Winter, Tonny Kirabira Laura Collins, The right to live under threat: on the armed forces (The Tatmadaw) taking power in Myanmar, Völkerrechtsblog, 8 April 2021.
  • Tonny R Kirabira and Leïla Choukroune, The ICC’s rejection of Bemba’s compensation claim points to the need for reform, The Conversation, 24 June 2020.
  • Tonny R Kirabira, Myanmar before the International Court of Justice: viable remedy for the Rohingya victims? The Leuven Transitional Justice Blog, 30 March 2020.
  • Tonny R Kirabira, Why the UK has suddenly pulled out of the European Union, New Vision, 24 June 2016.

 

Media Interviews

TEACHING

  • Criminal Law - Module Leader
  • International Law: Problems and Process (Mental Wealth) - LA7040
  • International Criminal Law - LA7010
  • Dissertation Supervisor

External roles

  • Reviewer of the International Journal of Transitional Justice
  • External examiner- Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Public International Law, University of Oslo
  • External Examiner- LLM/MPhil in Transnational Criminal Justice, The University of the Western Cape

  • Vice President of the Publications Committee - Uganda Law Society 

     

Industry partners

Publications

The last four years of publications can be viewed below. 

Full publications list

Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications

Research repository