Yale University Announces Selection of Cameroonian Human Rights Lawyer Ernest Titanji as Yale World Fellow

New Haven, Conn., USA - Yale University announced the selection of Ernest Titanji, a barrister and solicitor with the Supreme Court of Cameroon, as a 2007 Yale World Fellow. Titanji, 40, has a thriving human rights legal practice and pioneered the first pro bono practice in Cameroon.

The Yale World Fellows Program represents a unique initiative among U.S. universities and a core element of Yale's commitment to be a leading global university. Aiming to build a worldwide network of emerging leaders and to broaden international understanding, the Program conducts a competition each year to select 18 highly accomplished early mid-career men and women from government, business, the media, and civil society organizations representing countries across the world for a 4-month leadership program at Yale.
Yale President Richard C. Levin announced the selection of the 2007 Yale World Fellows, saying, "I am very pleased to introduce this extraordinary group of men and women to the Yale community. The World Fellows Program attracts outstanding talent, and Yale will benefit greatly from the Fellows' presence on campus."
A member of the Human Rights Commission of the Cameroon Bar Association, Titanji is a founding and senior partner of Duga & Co. Law Firm and a lecturer in law at the University of Yaoundé. Given his retainership with the European Union Human Rights Program, as well as his role as chairman of the National Human Rights Observatory, Titanji has worked fearlessly to remedy human rights abuses in Cameroon. He is particularly focused on cases of child abuse and violation of the rights of girls, and he recently courted controversy and public derision by defending 11 young men charged with homosexual acts. His law firm is the first in Cameroon to launch a pro bono practice for those unable to foot legal bills; these services are available for criminal and human rights cases. Titanji, in his role as president of the U.S. International Visitors Program Alumni, was also actively involved in training independent election observers in preparation for the October 2004 presidential elections in Cameroon.

"It is a remarkable privilege and honor to have been selected to the Yale World Fellows Program. I am truly excited to share experiences with my colleagues in the Program and with the broader Yale community," said Titanji. "I am looking forward to the multidisciplinary challenge of the program and have no doubt that my work will benefit enormously from it."

Selected from outside the U.S. at an early mid-career point, World Fellows come from a range of fields, including government, business, media, non-governmental organizations, the military, religion, and the arts. Joining Titanji this year are a top television news broadcaster in China, a policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Chief Operating Officer of the BBC's New Media unit, members of parliament from Singapore and Ukraine, and one of Southeast Asia's most critically acclaimed playwrights.

"The 2007 Yale World Fellows not only have remarkable records of leadership," said Yale World Fellows Program Director Daniel C. Esty, the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale, "but they promise to achieve even more in the future. It is exciting that they will be joining a growing network of global leaders trained at Yale."

The Program selection process is intense: the 18 World Fellows for 2007 were selected from a pool of 970 applicants from around the world. Four represent countries new to the Program's network. Since its inception in 2002, 107 World Fellows from 66 different countries have come to New Haven.

From August to December, the 2007 World Fellows will engage in a specially designed seminar taught by some of Yale's most eminent faculty; take any of the 3,000 courses offered at the University; participate in weekly dinners with distinguished guest speakers; receive individualized skill-building training; and meet with U.S. and foreign leaders. Past World Fellows have met with then-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, development expert Jeffrey Sachs, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, among others.

The Program covers all of the World Fellows' expenses-tuition fees, housing, travel and health care-and grants them a $30,000 living stipend. In addition, all World Fellows, both past and present, are invited to a biennial Return to Yale Forum, where past and current Fellows meet to build a global network of world leaders as well as renew their ties to Yale. The next Forum will take place October 24-27, 2007.

The Yale World Fellows Program has at its core three main goals: to provide advanced global leadership training to emerging leaders from a diverse set of fields and countries, to link these world leaders to each other and to Yale in a tangible way and to expand and deepen international understanding at Yale.

Yale University is located in historic New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701, the University consists of 12 schools: Yale College, the four-year undergraduate school; the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; and 10 professional schools, including the Yale School of Medicine, the Yale Law School, and the Yale School of Music. Yale has a global reputation for training U.S. and world leaders - including four of the last six U.S. presidents.

Nominations to the 2008 Yale World Fellows Program are accepted online May 1-December 31, 2007, at: www.yale.edu/worldfellows.