The Hon. Justice Adel Omar Sherif

Prior to becoming a member of the Judicial Integrity Group, Justice Adel Omar Sherif participated in the Round Table Conference held at the Peace Palace at The Hague in November 2001 at which the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct were finalized.

Adel Omar Sherif is, since 2022, the First Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt. He holds several law degrees and diplomas from the Cairo and Ain Shams Universities in Egypt, including LL.B in Law and Economics, Advanced Diploma in Public Law, Advanced Diploma in Administrative Law, and Ph.D. in Constitutional Law. He was engaged in private practice for a short period before his appointment to the Council of State, Egypt’s administrative judiciary, where he served in various capacities between 1980 and 1992. In 1993, he moved to the Supreme Constitutional Court as Assistant Counsellor and, after a series of promotions, was appointed Deputy Chief Justice in 2002.

Prior to his appointment as a DCJ in 2002, Justice Sherif, had occasionally been delegated to serve, in addition to his main judicial mandate, as a part-time Legal Adviser to several governmental agencies, including the Prime Minister’s Office, the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, the Cultural Palaces Organization, the Real-Estate Bank of Egypt, and the Cairo Regional Center for International Commercial Arbitration. He also served as a member of the Specialized National Councils, Administrative Development Sector. Following his appointment to the Bench, he has continued to being a member of the board in a number of academic institutions, including the law school at Helwan University in Cairo, the law school at Cairo University and many other legal associations and academic institutions, both inside Egypt and outside. At the international level, Justice Sherif served as Vice- President of the International Judicial Academy in Washington DC. He is a Council Member of the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law (CIMEL) at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London, a Member of the International Board of Judicial Advisers for the Judges Newsletter of The Hague Conference on Private International Law and a Member of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Judicial Reference Group.

In the Environment and Sustainable Development area, Justice Sherif was a Member of both the Judicial Advisory Board to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); a Member of the Specialist Judicial Group and the Soil Specialist Group at the International Union for Conservation of the Nature (IUCN). In addition, Justice Sherif served as Secretary General for the Arab Supreme Courts Union for the Protection of the Environment, and was also a Member of the Executive Planning Committee of the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, INECE, Washington, DC, USA. He also served for four years as a Member of the Steering Committee of the Commission on Environmental Law at the IUCN.

Justice Sherif was a Visiting Fellow at the Human Rights Law Centre of the College of Law, DePaul University in Chicago, IL in 1992; the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex from 1993–94; the Federal Judicial Center in Washington D.C. in 1996; a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, McGill University from 1998-99. He also taught Islamic Law and Comparative Law as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Comparative Law at Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA, from 2008-2016.

Justice Sherif often represents the Egyptian judicial community in international events, conferences, and seminars. He has served as the Rapporteur of a series of international human rights conferences known collectively as “The Cairo Conference” and for a number of regional and international conferences’ in collaboration with UNEP, on Capacity Building of Judges on Environmental Law. He founded and acted as Secretary General and Rapporteur of the annual gatherings of the African Chief Justices, known as 'Cairo High Level Meeting for the Chief Justice and Presidents of African Constitutional Courts and Supreme Courts & Constitutional Councils' since its beginning in 2017 until 2022.

Justice Sherif has recently been officially seconded to the Government of Qatar to help rendering legal advice to the Ministry of Justice.

In 2005, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan awarded Justice Sherif 'The Medal of the Constitution of Kazakhstan'. In 2007, the Ateneo de Davao University in the Philippines conferred upon him an 'Honorary Doctorate Degree in Laws'. In 2014, he was awarded 'The Key of the City of Lucknow' by the State of Uttar Pradesh, India. In 2020, the 21st International Conference of Chief Justices of the World (The World Judiciary Summit 2020) convened at City Montessori School, Lucknow, India, awarded Justice Sherif 'The Hope of Humanity Award'. In 2020, Justice Sherif received for the second time, 'The Medal of the Constitution of Kazakhstan', awarded to him by the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Justice Sherif has written and published widely on various legal aspects including human rights, constitutional issues, Islamic law, and environmental law.