Abbiba Ivy Princewill - Global Challenges Scholar
Abbiba Ivy Princewill is a qualified lawyer from Nigeria and an African Liberty Writing fellow for 2020/2021, one of 35 competitively selected fellows from Africa. She is a 2020 UN Women Nigeria Young Aspiring leader, one of 25 young Nigerian female leaders selected by UN women to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action.
She is passionate about children's rights, gender equality, and essay writing. Abbiba will be working with the Children’s Legal Centre of Wales for the Global Challenges research placement project.
Educational and Career Background
Abbiba graduated from King's College London in 2014 with an Upper Second Class Honors in Law. Upon graduation, she moved to the US, where she obtained an LLM in Securities Regulation from the University of California, Los Angeles. Subsequently, she was awarded an LPC from City University London. In 2016, she moved to Nigeria and worked as a legal associate at Opeyemi Bamidele & Associates and taught English at the Junior Secondary School, Jabi, Abuja for her mandatory National Youth Service year. Abbiba enjoyed her teaching experience, and it was during this time she became interested in children's rights, particularly the right to education for children.
After attending the Nigerian Law School, Abbiba was admitted into the Nigerian Bar in 2019. She then became a volunteer for L'Osservatorio – the research center on the impact of conflict on civilian victims, and an Ambassador for the World Literacy Foundation, an organisation dedicated to eradicating illiteracy across the world.
These experiences further strengthened her interest in children's rights and gender equality, as she observed the disproportionate impact of conflict and illiteracy on women and girls, in particular.
In November 2020, Abbiba attended the official launch of the UN's Generation Equality campaign. In December 2020, she presented her poem, "We Say No" at the African Women Leaders Network (Nigerian chapter) and UN Women’s Intergenerational Dialogue on advocacy for accelerated action on violence against women and girls in Nigeria.
Areas of Expertise
Since commencing the Global Challenges programme, Abbiba has been researching the legal framework for educational services for children with special educational needs. This is part of her placement with the Children's Legal Centre in Wales. Her research involves examining international human rights obligations, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Then she will critically analyze the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 and determine how effective the legislation is in respecting, protecting, and fulfilling the right to education for children with special needs. Abbiba is currently interning with UNICEF’s Human Rights Unit.
Ambitions and Hopes for the Future
“My ambition for the future is work in the fields of human rights, child rights and development.
I hope to gain research, policy, and advocacy skills from the Global Challenges programme to become both a voice and a change agent in these areas, both in Africa and globally.”
