Olukemi Ibikunle, a Nigerian corrections officer, has been honored with the 2025 UN Trailblazer Award for Women Justice and Corrections Officers for her groundbreaking work reforming prison systems in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Ibikunle, a trained geologist and former project manager in Nigeria’s prison service, joined the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO in 2020. Her mission: to redesign and rehabilitate prison facilities in post-conflict zones while upholding human dignity and international standards like the Mandela and Bangkok Rules.
Key Achievements:
- Built and rehabilitated prisons with privacy-focused designs, including “dwarf doors” to prevent suicide while maintaining dignity.
- Advocated for gender-sensitive infrastructure, pushing for separate women’s prisons or secure female blocks to prevent exploitation.
- Launched a biogas system in Uvira Prison that converted human waste into cooking fuel, improving sanitation and reducing deforestation.
- Fought for food equity in Bukavu Prison, ensuring female inmates received the same rations as men after years of neglect.
- Led construction of a high-security facility in Kabare amid militia threats, staying behind even as MONUSCO withdrew from the region.
Despite facing sexist resistance, language barriers, and militia offensives—including a harrowing evacuation from Bukavu—Ibikunle remained committed to her mission. Her work has redefined prison reform as a cornerstone of peacebuilding, proving that “peace begins behind bars.”
She received the award at UN Headquarters in New York, where her quiet leadership and technical brilliance were celebrated as a model for justice reform in conflict zones.