Mojirayo Oluwatoyin Ogunlana is a digital rights lawyer on a mission to establish a legal framework at national and regional levels that safeguards a free and open internet while upholding human rights. She champions strategic litigation in courts to challenge constraints on freedom of expression, association and assembly. She coordinates advocacy campaigns to enforce these fundamental rights across West Africa, envisioning a thriving civic space for current and future generations in the region.
With over 13 years of legal practice, Mojirayo has committed the past nine years to defending the rights of journalists, primarily on a pro bono basis, before Nigerian courts and the West African regional ECOWAS Court. She is renowned for her pivotal role in prosecuting the landmark case of Amnesty International, Togo & 7 Others v. The Republic of Togo, addressing the internet shutdown; which earned the Judgment the 2022 Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression Prize for a Significant Legal Ruling.
Mojirayo is a legal practitioner based in Abuja, Nigeria. She is a member of the West Africa Network of Activists and Media Defence Lawyers (WANAMDEL), a network of activists seeking justice for abused human rights activists and journalists. She is a fellow of the Impact West Africa Fellowship program of the Aspen Global Innovators Institute and Niyel 2023-2024 cohort. She is a fellow of the Internet Society Nigeria, and serves as a co-chair of the Legal and Digital Rights Working Group. Mojirayo is bilingual. She is an expert speaker in English and has an intermediate level command of the French language.
COURTROOM ACCOMPLISHMENTS
She litigated and won the 20 October 2020, renowned as ENDSARS case against the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the ECOWAS Court in partnership with other lawyers for the enforcement of the rights of Applicants on that notorious in July 2024
She litigated and won the case against the Attorney General of the Federation of the Federal Republic of Nigeria over the reluctance of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to take measures to prevent attacks on journalists and other media practitioners since 1986; and to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of all attacks against journalists and other media practitioners, and ensure that all victims of attacks against journalists have access to effective remedies. 14 February 2024
She filed a suit against the government of Senegal over the internet shutdowns which took place in June/July 2023.(Pending judgment).
She litigated and won the Association des Blogueurs de Guinee v. Guinea, an internet shutdown case against the Republic of Guinea at the ECOWAS Court in October 2023
She litigated and won the 222 days twitter ban case of Nigeria at the Community Court of Justice (ECOWAS Court) in July 2022, where the Court upheld its decision that the right to the internet is a derivative right to the right to freedom of expression and held that Nigeria violated the rights of its citizens.
She handled the 6 AbujaRaids strategic litigation cases in partnership with other lawyers, Amnesty International Nigeria, Lawyers Alert and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), before the Federal High Court of Nigeria to enforce the fundamental rights of 6 women in cases of gender based violence and other human rights abuses against by law enforcement agencies in collaboration with government institutions in Abuja, Nigeria, which took place in December 2018 to April 2019. This involved over sixty (60) women but only eight (8) victims came forward for the enforcement of their rights, and whose rights have been jointly and severally abused by the Nigerian Police, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp, the Environmental Protection Board, the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority, the Federal Capital Territory Administration, the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council and a Magistrate. The court upheld arguments that every woman no matter where she finds herself is deserving of protection by the law and stated unequivocally that “the arrest of the applicants without cause, the beating, molestation and dehumanising treatment, the detention of the applicants and the barring of the applicants from accessing legal representation was a violation of the applicants’ rights as guaranteed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and they were awarded between N2 million to N4 million in damages.”
She handled an amicus application in the case of Federation of African Journalists & ors. Vs. The Gambia (FAJ) in 2016 and judgment delivered on February 14, 2018), where she represented the Amici Curiae: Amnesty International, The Committee to Protect Journalists, David Kaye (Special Rapporteur to the United Nations on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression) , Redress Trust, Article 19, Canadian Journalists For Free Expression, Freedom House, Pen International (and its local chapters Pen Afrikaans, Pen American Center, Pen Eritrea In Exile, Pen Ghana, Pen Kenya, Pen Nigeria, Pen Sierra Leone, and Pen South Africa), Reporters Without Borders, And Right 2 Know Campaign South Africa.
She handled a strategic amicus application on gender discrimination at the Community Court of Justice (ECOWAS) in 2019 in the case of Women Against Violence and Exploitation in Society (WAVES) v The Republic of Sierra Leone; a case involving the ban of pregnant school girls from attending mainstream school and sitting exams by the Republic of Sierra Leone, under the Minister of Education in 2015. Judgment was delivered on the 12th of December 2019 in ECW/CCJ/APP/22/18, where the Court held that Sierra Leone’s practice of establishing separate educational facilities for pregnant girls was an institutionalized discrimination against them and a violation of the right to equal education for all children, especially as teaching in the said schools was found to be significantly inefficient. Consequently, the Court ordered Sierra Leone to immediately revoke the policy banning pregnant girls from mainstream school; to abolish the schools established separately for pregnant girls; to develop strategies, programmes and nationwide campaigns focusing on reversing negative societal attitudes that support discrimination and bias against pregnant girls attending school, which foster the violation of their right, as well as the right of teenage mother, to continuing education; to develop strategies, programmes and nationwide campaigns to enable teenage mothers to attend school; and to integrate sexual and reproductive health education into the school curricula.
Mojirayo can be contacted as follows:
Email: ogunlanamojirayo@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Mojirayo Ogunlana O.
Twitter: @mojirayoDR
Telephone: +2348092653116
