Yitiha Simbeye is a lecturer in Law at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) in Dar es Salaam. Simbeye specializes in international criminal law and is currently coordinator of the Masters in Law in International Criminal Justice (LLM ICJ) at OUT; from 2008-11 she was head of the International & Constitutional Law Department.

Yitiha Simbeye

Yitiha Simbeye is a lecturer in Law at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) in Dar es Salaam. Simbeye specializes in international criminal law and is currently coordinator of the Masters in Law in International Criminal Justice (LLM ICJ) at OUT; from 2008-11 she was head of the International & Constitutional Law Department. Simbeye was previously Duty Counsel with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on the Bizimana Special Deposition Hearing (2011-2012) and Defence Legal Assistant on the Ngeze Appeal (2006). She was Dean of the Faculty of Law at Makumira University College of Tumaini University, Tanzania between 2004-6 and as such served as the first woman dean of a faculty of law in Tanzania. Prior to that she was a Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

Simbeye has published on questions of international criminal law, with a particular focus on immunities of state officials. She has a PhD in law from Reading University in the United Kingdom, an LLM from King’s College, London, and an LLB from the University of Warwick, UK. She has worked with the Open Society family on various projects and research and is an active and life member of the Pan-African Lawyers Union.