Solomon Okedara is a practicing legal Practitioner and Researcher with over fourteen (14) years post-call experience and expertise in litigation and non-litigious areas of practice. Solomon has a special bias for Human Rights (specially focusing on Freedom of Expression), Data Protection Privacy, Digital Identity, Access to Internet and Online Expressions.
He is armed with a peerless ability in creative legal research and analysis, delivering impressive results in review of laws, legal principles and standards. Solomon is a partner at Solomon Okedara & Co (a firm of Barristers and Solicitors) and co-founded Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative-a not for profit NGO that focuses on promotion and protection of digital rights.
In 2021, Solomon had the privilege of advising the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the human rights impact of Nigeria’s Digital Identity project (e-ID) when he led a team of consultants to prepare a Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) of the project focusing on Data Protection and Privacy as part of the
requirements for Nigerian government to access the bank’s Two Hundred and Fifty Million Euros (€250,000,000) as part of the total Four Hundred and Thirty Million US Dollars ($430,000,000) from the trio of EIB, World Bank and French Development Agency for the e-ID project.
Solomon currently serves as a Legal Researcher with Columbia University in the city of New York for the ivy-league school’s Global Freedom of Expression project where he analyses judgments bothering on Freedom of Expression subjects covering over 120 jurisdictions across the world including United States, Europe, India, and Africa among others.
Solomon is a 2016 Research Fellowship Recipient of International Center for Not for profit Law (ICNL), Washington DC. He was specially recognized in 2017 “Heroes of Human Rights” by Access Now. Solomon was specially recognized as a Finalist at the 2018 Global Freedom of Expression Prize of Columbia University. In 2022, Solomon was recognized with Lex Falcon Global Award in Law and Technology.