By June Bell
law community
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Photograph courtesy of Emmanuel Sam, Jr.
winter 2023
Emmanuel Sam, Jr., was 8 years old when a horrific experience changed his life: He witnessed the murders of his beloved older brother and uncle, two of the tens of thousands of victims of civil violence in Sierra Leone.
His war experience, which ended in 2002, changed his life forever, but it did not kill his dreams; rather it “transformed them to the desire to give voice to the voiceless,” he said. He was 13 when he began to advocate for human rights, including empowering women, children, and the disabled.
Sam earned his undergraduate and law degrees in Sierra Leone, and is now studying for a doctorate in corporate and compliance law at Suffolk Law. He received an African Peace Award, presented by African Peace Magazine in 2021 in Abuja, Nigeria, for his efforts to promote peace and good governance. Other recipients included Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo and Justice Suleiman Galadima of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Sam, 35, regularly travels internationally to speak, reminding conference attendees that children must have access to free quality education, and all people need internet access. Sam has criticized African governments for strategic internet blackouts, which deprive citizens of critical information during elections and conflicts and cripple online commerce. A dozen African countries cut internet access at least 19 times in 2021, according to Access Now, which tracks restrictions on digital access. “There are hundreds, if not millions, of Africans that go without the internet,” Sam says. “The internet should be a human right.”
Since Sam is passionate about so many human-rights issues, selecting a dissertation topic proved to be a challenge. He credits professors Sara Dillon and Stephen Cody with helping him focus his research on the intersection of corporate law and human rights. He plans to explore how to hold international companies liable for human-rights abuses—such as using child labor to produce components or goods—in African countries. To combat African judges’ vulnerability to corporate bribes, Sam will lay out a framework for creating regional courts, modeled on the Court of Justice of the European Union, to adjudicate allegations of human-rights violations. He is aiming to earn his doctorate by 2024.
