Mr.AdamaDieng

On 17 July 2012, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Adama Dieng of Senegal as Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.

Adama Dieng assumed his position as United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 2001 for a term of four years. Mr. Dieng graduated in Law from the Dakar University and holds a Certificate from the Research Centre of the Hague Academy of International Law. He has also a Certificate on Homeland Security, Internal and External Security from the Paris Institute of International High Studies. Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Dieng was for ten years the Secretary General of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (1990-2000), ICJ Legal adviser for Africa (1982-1990).

While holding the post of Secretary General, Mr. Dieng was appointed as the United Nations Independent Expert for Haiti (1995-2000). He also served in 1993 as Envoy of the UN Secretary General to Malawi to mediate between the Government and the pressure Groups. He was the driving force behind the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and produced also the draft of the African Convention to fight Corruption. In Senegal, Mr. Dieng was Registrar of the Supreme Court and he also was a TV producer of a program on Legal Literacy as well as a judicial chronicler with the Daily national newspaper “Le Soleil”. 

Mr. Dieng authored many articles on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, former President of the Martin Ennals Foundation, former Vice-President of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, former member of the Governing Council of the International Human Rights Institute (Institut Rene Cassin) and former President of the Geneva Special Committee of International Human Rights NGOs.

Mr. Dieng is currently member of the Board of Africa Leadership Forum, member of the Strategic Orientation Committee of the Development Institute of University Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne; Founding member of PATROL (Pan African Alliance for Transparency and the Rule Of Law). He led many fact-finding missions on Human Rights and Rule of Law and acted also on various occasions as Consultant for ICRC, African Union, European Commission, UNESCO, OIF and the OHCHR. Mr. Dieng is a well-acclaimed human rights expert and lecturer on issues relating to International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law, Criminal Justice, Electoral Law, etc. In the last 30 years, Mr Dieng has made a tremendous contribution to the fight against impunity as well as to the development of capacity building in the area of judicial and democratic institutions in many countries around the world, particularly in Africa. He contributed to the establishment of many NGOs around Africa and promoted the introduction of legal services in rural Africa. Mr. Dieng is a native from Senegal (West Africa) and he speaks many languages including French and English.