Itunu Omolara Oriye is a human rights lawyer, activist and feminist legal researcher. Her work as a feminist legal researcher explores feminist legal theory with a focus on feminist constitutionalism. Omolara started her career working with two high profile Lagos law firms, Paul Erokoro SAN & Co and Falana & Falana Chambers — a foremost human rights Law firm in Nigeria. Over the years, she has served as an advocacy strategist and legal officer with two women’s rights organisations in Nigeria: Women Empowerment and Legal Aid (WELA) and Stand to End Rape Initiative (STER). She has written several articles and petitions to the government on various human rights issues ranging from displacement of waterfront communities, rape, women’s rights and other forms of sexual violence. She has participated in several public policy and human rights campaigns in Nigeria and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR).
Omolara is an experienced human rights lawyer who has worked in feminist and LGBT organising spaces in the past 8 years. She leads the team at Social Justice Education and Advocacy Centre, a human rights educational centre she runs in her spare time. She is the immediate past Executive director at the Initiative for Equal rights (TIERS) in Nigeria, a human rights organisation that works to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. She has worked as a consultant on various human rights and feminist projects including the adoption of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act VAPP (2015) in Adamawa state, Nigeria.
She is a member of the Nigeria Feminist forum, a member of the State of Emergency GBV movement in Nigeria— a movement comprising of feminist activists against sexual violence and has volunteered with various women’s rights organisation in Nigeria. She holds a first degree in Mass Communication from Kogi State University, a Law degree from the University of Buckingham and a Master’s degree in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria.