Hassan Bubacar Jallow

Hassan Bubacar Jallow, CRG (born 14 August 1951) is a Gambian judge who has served as Chief Justice of the Gambia since February 2017. He was the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) from 2003 to 2016, and the Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) from 2012 to 2016, both at the rank of United Nations Under Secretary-General. He served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General from 1984 to 1994 under President Dawda Jawara.

Early life and education

Jallow was born in Bansang, British Gambia on 14 August 1951. He was the son of Abubacar Jallow (d. 1997), an Imam and Islamic Scholar. He attended Saint Augustine's High School in Banjul from 1963 to 1969, and the Gambia High School from 1969 to 1971. He studied at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1973 and graduated in 1976. He became a barrister-at-law in Nigeria in 1977 after studying for a year at the Nigerian Law School in Lagos. He acquired a master's degree in public international law from University College London in 1979.

Early career

Jallow was called to the bar in the Gambia and Nigeria in 1977. He was enrolled as a barrister and solicitor of the supreme courts of the Gambia and Nigeria. Jallow worked as a state prosecutor at the Attorney General's Chambers in the Gambia from 1977 to 1982 and was principal state counsel for a period of time. He also served as acting Registrar General in charge of the registration of companies, patents, trademarks, and so on. At this time, he also worked as a legal expert for the Organisation of African Unity and was one of the expert drafters of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights which was adopted in 1981. In July 2002, he was suddenly removed from the Judiciary with no reason given but it was likely linked to an acclaimed but controversial Supreme Court ruling in the Ousman Sabally case.

On 1 March 2012, Jallow was also appointed United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), to serve for a four-year term. He was a member of the Independent Review Panel on UN Response to Allegations of Sexual Abuse by Foreign Military Forces in the Central African Republic, alongside Marie Deschamps and Yasmin Sooka. Upon the conclusion of his term, he was praised by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as "instrumental to the successful fulfilment of the mandate of the [ICTR] and the efficient conduct of the work of the Office of the Prosecutor". In 2015, Charles Chernor Jalloh of Florida International University and Alhagi Marong of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda praised Jallow's service in a research paper.

As Chief Justice

On 15 February 2017, Jallow was sworn-in as the Chief Justice of the Gambia after his appointment by newly elected President of the Gambia, Adama Barrow. At the ceremony, he said "I have heard on a number of occasions the president reiterate his commitment for the judiciary and to its effectiveness. This declaration coming from the Office of the President to maintain the independence of the Judiciary is, indeed, very assuring and an excellent starting point for a new Chief Justice."

International Associations

He is a member of the Crimes Against Humanity Initiative Advisory Council, a project of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis to establish the world's first treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.

National Honour

He is a Commander of the Order of the Republic of The Gambia.