Bonny Ibhawoh


Bonny Ibhawoh is an author and professor of global human rights and African Studies at McMaster University. His scholarship includes studies in the history of human rights, the cultural relativism of human rights, the right to development and peace/conflict studies. He is the author of several books on African History, Human Rights and Peace & Conflict studies including Imperialism and Human Rights, and Imperial Justice: Africans in Empire's Court, and Human Rights in Africa. He is a contributor to the GIAZILO blog - a blog on "Human Rights, Social Justice and Peace."
Ibhawoh is a critic of absolute cultural relativism in the interpretation of human rights norms. He has argued that the cultural relativist stance has been dominated by urban-based elites whose perception of "cultural legitimacy" focuses on the idealized and invented traditions of collectivism, definitive gender roles, and conservative patriarchy in the interpretation of moral values. His book "Imperialism and Human Rights" has been described as "one of the first to explore the role rights performed during the process of decolonization of Africa." Ibhawoh is a recipient of the John Holland Award for Professional Achievement. Ibhawoh is a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada and a United Nations Independent Expert on the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development.

Career

Ibhawoh began his academic career as a lecturer at Bendel State University, Nigeria. He has held faculty appointments at the University of Lagos and Covenant University in Nigeria, Brock University, Canada, and the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He was a Human Rights Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, New York, Research Fellow at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Copenhagen and Associate Member of the Centre for African Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Books