Professor Nnenna Ifeanyi-Ajufo

Nnenna is a Professor of Law and Technology at the Leeds Law School. She is a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy, Harvard University (2022-2024), and an Associate Fellow of the Africa Programme at Chatham House, United Kingdom. Her teaching and research interests focus primarily on the governance of digital technologies, cybersecurity, digital rights, and rule of law in cyberspace. She has partnered with various organisations for the delivery of research projects aimed at shaping academic and policy discourses on the governance of digital technologies. She was a member of the International Law Association Steering Committee on Digital Challenges for International Law. The Committee delivered a White Paper on Digital Challenges for International Law - Digital Challenges for International Law - Ila Paris 2023. She recently delivered a commissioned stakeholder mapping project on ‘digital financial security’ on the CyberFI Project of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In addition to her regular teaching and research, Nnenna serves as the Chair of the Cybercrime Working Group of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), and the Vice-Chairperson of the African Union Cyber Security Experts Group (AUCSEG). She advices the African Union Commission (AUC) and African Member States on existing international, regional and national legal frameworks related to cybersecurity. She also serves as a delegate to the United Nations ‘Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of ICTs for Criminal Purposes’, as well as the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on ICTs.

Nnenna serves on the editorial and advisory boards of various journals. She is a contributing editor for the ‘Directions’ of the Cyber Direct Project of the European Union Institute for Security Studies and an Editor of the Commonwealth Cybercrime Journal. She is also a member of the Research Committee of the GFCE and has served as an expert or consultant for notable organisations such as the Chatham House, the Commonwealth and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). She has taught at various universities including, Swansea University, University of Bradford, Buckinghamshire New University and Lancaster University Ghana. She has also delivered courses at the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, the Clingendael Academy - the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, and the University of Ghana. Her research on the intersection between technology dependence and racial discrimination through digital technologies was recently published on the Havard University Carr Center Discussion Paper Series. In 2020, she was named amongst 50 Individuals leading Legal Innovation in Africa, at the Africa Legal Innovation Awards.