Amin Mekki Medani

Born in 1939 in Wad Madani, Al Jazeera, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. He comes from one of Wad Madani’s prominent families. His father was the first Sudanese Undersecretary of the Ministry of Irrigation, as well as a member of the Umma Party. He is also a distant cousin of both Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi, and Sovereign Council Member Aisha Musa el-Said.

After graduating from the prestigious Hantoub secondary school, Medani studied law at the University of Khartoum, obtaining his LL.B. with (Honours). Then in 1964, he received his Dipl. Civ.L. (Civil Law) from the University of Luxembourg. Then went on to receive a masters (LLM) with distinction at the University of London in 1965, and finally in 1970 he received a PhD, in Comparative Criminal Law from the University of Edinburgh.[1]

In 1962 after obtaining his LLB, he started working as a magistrate in the Judiciary of Sudan. In 1966, upon his return from London, he joined the faculty of law at Khartoum University, as a Senior Scholar and Lecturer until 1971. To which then he became the Acting Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Tanzania. Then as an attorney to the World Bank in Washington DC. In 1976 he returned to Khartoum and worked at the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, in this time he also became more involved in activism to promote democratic governance in Sudan. In 1985, after the revolution that overthrew the Nimeiry dictatorship, he served in the Transitional Government of Sudan as Minister of Peace, Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, until the election of former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. In 1991, he was imprisoned, for over a year, and subsequently expelled from Sudan by the Al-Bashir regime, causing him to migrate to Cairo and worked at the Egyptian Bar Association.[1]

Medani previously served as head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) office in the West Bank and Gaza, Chief of Mission of the OHCHR in Zagreb, Croatia, legal advisor to the Special Representative of the U.N Secretary-General in Iraq as well as Afghanistan, and a Regional Representative for the OHCHR in Beirut, Lebanon.[3][5] During his tenure in Baghdad, Medani witnessed the Canal Hotel bombing that killed former United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Representative to Iraq, Sérgio Vieira de Mello.

On August 31, 2018, after being denied permission to leave the country by the government and suffering from a long battle with heart disease and kidney failure, Mekki Medani passed away. His death was mourned and televised all over the world, as a loss for the fight for human rights and democracy. The US, British, French, and Canadian governments, as well as many other international and regional bodies and public figures published statements mourning his loss.[4]

In 2018, shortly after the death of Medani, the Amin Mekki Medani Foundation was founded. The foundation focuses on the pursuit of human rights, civil and political liberties, fighting for democracy, and many pressing issues, such as, the work of addressing injustices, and highlighting the lifetimes spent by the tireless effort of the human rights and political activists in the country. The foundation is supported by many international organizations and governments in hoping to help spread the realization of justice in Sudan.