The African Union has appointed Senegalese jurist Adama Dieng as its first Special Envoy for the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide and Other Mass Atrocities, 30 years after the Rwanda genocide, during which about one million Tutsis were killed over a three-month period.
The appointment came as the AU commemorated the event on April 7, something it has done since 2010.
In announcing Mr Dieng’s appointment on X (Formerly Twitter) on Saturday, the AU Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, wrote: ‘As AU Special Envoy, Mr Dieng will drive the AU agenda to combat the ideology of hate and genocide on the continent.’
Mr Dieng is an experienced international lawyer and human rights specialist.
From 1990 to 2000, he was Secretary-General of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists before he was appointed by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2001 as the Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
In July 2012, he became UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Sp
ecial Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.
He recently founded the Pan-African Alliance for Transparency and the Rule of Law (PATROL-AFRICA).
Members of PATROL’s board welcomed Mr Dieng’s appointment, and told the GNA that it was a positive move.
Board member Ben Kioko, a Kenyan who has been a judge of the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights since 2012, told the GNA: ‘Adama Dieng is an internationally recognised expert on human rights whose contribution to the development and strengthening of the African human rights system has not been sufficiently recognised.’
He said that Mr Dieng had ‘specifically made an invaluable contribution to the strengthening of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in its engagement with civil society and other actors as well as the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights’.
Judge Kioko added that Mr Dieng’s ‘strong competencies in preventing and combating atrocity crimes will no doubt assist the African Union and our beloved cont
inent in ensuring that [saying] ‘never again’ to atrocity crimes becomes a living doctrine and not just an aspiration’.
Another board member, Dr Ahmed Abaddi from Morocco, told the GNA: ‘Sincerest congratulations to our president, Adama Dieng, for this most needed responsibility.
‘PATROL will spare no effort in assisting him in this key mission.’
Dr Charles Majinge, who has been a long-time assistant to Mr Dieng, said that the Special Envoy had done much for the cause of justice and the rule of law.
Dr Majinge told the GNA: ‘His career has always been intertwined with prevention of mass atrocities.
‘His service to the ICTR and his role as Special Adviser on Genocide Prevention attest to this exceptional record.
‘It is gratifying to see him being called upon to offer his outstanding qualities of leadership in the services of the African people and, above all, the victims of these atrocities.’
Source: Ghana News Agency