Harold Jenewari Dappa-Biriye was a Nigerian politician who was a former chairman of the Niger Delta Congress and was known for his advocacy of minority rights in Nigeria.
As a rights activist, he believed that Nigerian states should have prominent roles in the control of their economic, political and social policies.
In response to the need of the 1957 Constitutional Conference to include all shades of opinions, Biriye pressed for the representation of Ijaws among the delegates.
He was supported by the Conference of Rivers Chiefs which gave him the mandate to represent the Ijaw region at the conference and also to present their case that the area should be accorded the same status as it was in the 1880s when the Oil Rivers Chiefs of Bonny, Nembe, Brass, Ogoni, Ahoada and Degema signed treaties with the British.
Unsuccessful legal presentations were made by Biriye and Udo Udoma that granting independence to Nigeria without adequate protection of the rights of Rivers Provinces as a separate state would be a violation of the treaties.