Honorable Justice Catherine Dupe Atoki is a Nigerian lawyer and judge of the ECOWAS Court of Justice. She has been working in legal practice for over forty years. Justice Atoki received her Bachelor of Laws from the Nigeria Law School, and her LLB from the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria. She also has an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in International Human Rights Law from the American University Washington College of Law.

Justice Atoki has served as a senior lecturer in Business and Administrative Law at the State Polytechnic Kaduna, a member of the Nigerian Human Right Commission, and as a member of the Federal Government Presidential Committee on the review of laws discriminatory of women, as well as the Committee on the reform of investment law. Additionally, she has also served as a legal consultant for the African Union, as a member of the election monitoring/observer team for several countries, and as commissioner for the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. She was a member of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights Commission and has helped draft several legal documents with the African Union.

She was the first Nigerian woman to be appointed to the role of Chair at the African Commission and has used her position to make sure Africa’s voice is heard at the United Nations. At the Commission, she is the rapporteur on prison and detention in Africa and the chairperson on the Committee for the prevention of torture. Justice Atoki has delivered papers on the topic of human rights, and she has a newspaper column titled ‘The African Torture Watch’.