The Congolese lawyer was elected, on Wednesday 12 October at 4am, president of the Bar Association of Central Kongo, a province located in the west of the DRC. Elected in the first round, she obtained 655 votes out of 1111 voters, against her opponents Me Rigobert Suami (362 votes) and Me Léon Matho (86 votes).
The only woman in the running for this election, Cherine Luzaisu is the first woman elected president of the Central Kongo Bar since its creation in 1983 and the eighth president of this province. She is also the second woman elected president of a bar in the Democratic Republic of Congo, after Rose Tumba Kaja, elected president of the Lubumbashi Bar in 2014 and re-elected in 2018.
Aged 51 and a member of the Matadi Bar since May 2000, Cherine Luzaisu has also been a legal counsel to the International Criminal Court since 2014. In this capacity, she has notably been counsel for victims during the trial of Congolese warlord Bosco Ntanganda at the ICC.
Cherine Luzaisu is the first female lawyer to be a member of the Bar Council of Central Kongo. Since 2000, she has founded and managed the Luzaisu law firm. She has proven experience in international maritime law, international criminal law, humanitarian law, arbitration and legal assistance to victims of sexual violence.
Cherine Luzaisu holds a Bachelor’s degree in public international law from Kongo University (formerly Unibaz). In addition, since 2016, she has been doing a Master II in African Cyberspace Law at the Gaston Berger University in Senegal. Since 2007, she is also president of the Association of Congolese Women Lawyers (Afejuco), Central Kongo section.
Ms. Cherine Luzaisu is also a member of the International Alliance of Women Lawyers; the Bar Association of the International Criminal Court; the Association of Counsel to the African Court of Human Rights; and the African Academy for the Practice of International Law.
