Prof Benyam Mezmur is Professor of Law, and Deputy Dean for Research & Postgraduate Studies, Faculty of Law, University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town, South Africa He is also the Coordinator, Children’s Rights Project, Dullah Omar Institute, UWC. Prof Mezmur served on the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, from  2010 to 2021; and was the Committee’s Chairperson twice (2012–2014, 2015–2017). He was also elected by the UN General Assembly as a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Child,  in 2012, and still serves as a member of that treaty body. He was its Chairperson between 2015 and 2017. He holds an LLB degree from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and LLM from the University of Pretoria; and an LLD from the University of the Western Cape.