With gratitude to God for a life well spent, we announce the passing away to eternal glory of our a daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, aunt, friend and great mentor, Mrs. Oby Nwankwo (Chief Magistrate Rtd) on December 9, 2017 in Maryland, U S A.
The fourth of eight children, she was born on September 22, 1956 to His Royal Highness, the Late Obi Alfred C. Ndigwe and Mrs Theodora Uzoamaka Ndigwe. On December 1, 1979, she married the love of her life, Engr Victor Uzoma Nwankwo (now late). They were married for 23 years until his untimely death in 2002. They had seven children- Uzo, Oby Jr, Ogo, Ral, Chinazo, Chidera and Kennedy.
Oby Nwankwo was a lawyer of over 30 years with post call experience in litigation, judicial duties and development work. She obtained her LL.B (Bachelor of Laws) with Honours from University of Nigeria in 1979 and subsequently obtained her LL.M (Master of Laws) Degree at University of Nigeria in 1992.
She served as a Chief Magistrate in the Anambra State Judiciary for 23 years. Since her voluntary retirement from the judiciary in 2004, she was in the forefront of the campaign for respect for women’s rights, gender equality and good governance. She was a gender expert/advocate, a human rights activist, an election monitor, a community mobiliser, an independent development consultant and a trainer/Facilitator.
Oby was the founder and Executive Director of the Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC), an NGO with offices in Abuja, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi states. Oby led CIRDDOC to work extensively in the following states of Nigeria: Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Bayelsa, Kano, Kaduna, Borno, Plateau, Lagos and Abuja; and has trained Community Information Officers, Civic Educators and paralegals who provide human rights, civic education and legal services in most of these states.
She represented Africa on the screening Committee of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (ICC); she was also a member of the ICC Gender Justice Team and Advisory Board member of Global Fund for Women among other agencies.
She served as Chairperson of the Civil Society Coordinating Committee on Election Reform (CSCC), an umbrella organization for all civil society organizations engaging the constitutional and electoral reform processes in Nigeria.
She was the pioneer Coordinator of National Coalition on Affirmative Action (NCAA), a network of Civil Society Organization committed to the adoption of affirmative action as an effective strategy for increasing the number of women in governance. She was a member of the Monitoring and Evaluation Network of Nigeria (MENN) and the Nigerian Bar Association. Oby Nwankwo presented numerous speeches at National and International fora and published several papers. She had extensive experience in gender based violence, gender analysis, gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation.
On the platform of CIRDDOC, she represented Africa in the Steering Committee of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (ICC), a member of the ICC Gender Justice Team and Advisory Board member of Global Fund for Women among others. She led the team that prepared the Women’s memorandum to the Uwais Committee on Electoral Reform and the Senate Committee on Constitutional Reform.
Oby led in the campaign for the domestication of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa by the National and State Assemblies and the passage of the Child’s Rights Law in the States. She was a member of the National Committee of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Stakeholders’ Forum.
Oby Nwankwo was elected as a member of the UN CEDAW Expert Committee for a 4-year term in January 2013 and was re-elected for another 4 year term in 2016.
The committee monitors compliance by the 189 State parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women with their legal obligations under the Convention. She was elected Vice-Chair of the Committee in February 2017. Oby was also Vice-Chair of the Committee’s Working Group on Communications under the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which pre-screens individual complaints received by the Committee from women alleging to be victims of violations of their rights under the Convention.
During the examination of the progress reports submitted to the convention by the States parties Oby focused, among others, on women’s and girls’ right to health, including their access to sexual and reproductive health services. Oby Nwankwo was a brilliant expert, a distinguished lawyer and highly respected member of the Committee and made important contributions to its work. Her most recent contribution was conducting a confidential inquiry visit to the territory of one State party to the Convention to ascertain the existence of systematic and grave violations of rights under the Convention in that State party.
Oby’s resume is extensive and she was an expert in women’s rights and attended many courses in law, gender, human rights, women’s rights. She received numerous awards; however, her biggest accomplishment was raising her seven beautiful and accomplished children after losing her husband 15 years ago. Oby may have left the physical world today, but her selfless life of service to humanity not only remains etched in our memories, but also keeps us striving to do more and more for our great organization in order to keep her vision alive – through service.
May God, in His Bounty, keep her in His lasting residence, where neither toil nor sense of weariness shall touch her – Amen.