President
World Maritime University
LLM, PhD, University of Geneva
LLB, LLM, University of the West Indies
Barrister-at-Law
Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry (LL.B, LL.M, Ph.D International Law) joined WMU as President in the summer of 2015.
Prior to joining WMU, she served as the Director of the International Labour Standards Department of the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr. Doumbia-Henry began her career at the University of the West Indies, Barbados, as a lecturer in law. She later worked with the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands and then joined the ILO in 1986 where she served both as a senior lawyer of the Organization and in several management positions. She was responsible for developing ILO Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 and remained responsible for it until she joined WMU. Since the late 1990s, she led the ILO participation in a number of IMO/ILO interagency collaborations on several issues of common interest to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and ILO, including the Joint IMO/ILO Ad Hoc Expert Working Groups on Fair Treatment of Seafarers and on Liability and Compensation regarding Claims for Death, Personal Injury and Abandonment of Seafarers.
Her qualifications include Barrister at Law and Solicitor, and she is entitled to practice in all English-speaking Caribbean jurisdictions and is a Member of the Inner Temple, Inns of Court, United Kingdom. She holds:
– a Masters of Law from the University of the West Indies;
– a Masters in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva, and
– a Doctorate in International Law from the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr. Doumbia-Henry has dual Dominican and Swiss nationality and has published extensively on a wide range of international law subjects, including on: International labour standards and trade, the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, the Seafarers Identity Documents’ Convention, 2003 and the Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Sea.