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.

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[4].

In 1962 after obtaining his LLB, he started working as a magistrate in the Judiciary of Sudan. Then 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 started his fighting for a democratic government in Sudan. In 1985, after the revolution that overthrew the Nimeiry dictatorship, he was appointed as Minister of Peace, Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs by then democratically elected Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. In 1991, he was imprisoned, then expelled from Sudan by the Al-Bashir regime. To which then he fled to Cairo and worked at the Egyptian Bar Association.[4]

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.[2][5]

On August 31, 2018, after a long battle with heart disease and kidney failure, Mekki Medani died. His death was seen and televised all over Sudan. The US, British, French, and Canadian Embassies, as well as many other international organisations and public figures, published statements to mourn his loss.[3]

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.