The chairperson and members of the AUPD
President Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, Chair of the AUPD
President
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbekiserved
as President of South Africa from 1999 until 2008. As a member of the ANC in
exile, he served in the ANC offices in Botswana, Swaziland, Nigeria and Zambia.
In 1975, he became a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC. In
December 1976, he was sent to Nigeria as a representative of the ANC, and was
appointed head of the ANC's information department in 1984 and, head of the
international department in 1989, working with Mr. Oliver Tambo, then President
of the ANC.
In 1989, Mr. Mbeki led the ANC delegation that conducted secret talks with the South African government. These talks led to the unbanning of the ANC and the release of political prisoners. He also participated in many of the other important negotiations between the ANC and the government that eventually led to the democratisation of South Africa. Mr. Mbeki became co-deputy President of South Africa in May 1994, after the first democratic election in South Africa, and sole deputy-president in June 1996. He succeeded Nelson Mandela as ANC president in December 1997 and as President of the Republic in June 1999. Mr. Mbeki was subsequently re-elected for a second term in April 2004. In his capacity as Deputy President and then, President, Mr. Mbeki helped to successfully resolve the conflicts in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Ivory Coast, and Zimbabwe. Mr. Mbeki earned a Master of Economics degree from the University of Sussex in England, while in exile.
Gen.
Abdulsalami Abubakar, Member of the AUPDGen. Abubakar served as Head of State and
Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, from 1998 – 1999. After
leaving office, Gen. Abubakar had illustrious international engagements,
including as Chairman of the Commonwealth Observer Group, in 2000. In August
2000, he was appointed as U.N. Secretary’s General’s Special Envoy to the
Democratic Republic of Congo. In June 2002, he was Chairman of the Military
Sub-Committee for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue. In 2002, he served as President
of the African Strategic and Peace Research Group. In May 2003, he was
appointed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as
Facilitator for the Liberia Peace Talks. In 2004, he was appointed as Special
Envoy of the AU Chairperson to Sudan and Chad. After serving as the Commonwealth Secretary
General’s Special Envoy to the Gambia, he later became the U.N. Secretary
General’s Special Envoy to the country. General Abubakar was born in Minna,
Niger State in 1942. He enlisted in the Nigerian Air force in 1963. He became
Chief of Defence Staff in 1993 and became a General in 1998.
President Pierre Buyoya, Member of the AUPDPresident Pierre Buyoya served as Burundi's Head of
State, twice, from 1987 to 1993 and from 1996 to 2003. In 2008, Mr. Buyoya was
appointed by the African Union to lead a mission to the Sudan and Chad. From
1993 to 1996, he was member of “Council for African Advisers,” a World Bank
think-tank chaired by the Bank’s Vice President in charge of Africa. Since
2004, he has served as a consultant for the International Organization for
Francophone countries. In this capacity, he has led delegations to monitor
elections or promote political dialogue in Guinea Bissau, Central African
Republic, Mauritania, DRC, and Niger. In Burundi, he heads an NGO called
"Foundation for Unity, Peace and Democracy,” dealing with street and
orphaned children and assisting them in the area of vocational education. As a Former President, he also serves
as a Senator in Parliament.
Ahmed Maher El Sayed, Member of the AUPDMr.
Ahmed Maher served as Egypt’s Foreign Minister from 2001 until 2004. Prior to
this appointment, Mr. Maher served at Egyptian Embassies in Kinshasa, Paris, the
Consulate-General in Zurich, Lisbon and Brussels, where he was accredited by
the European Union. In 1992, he was appointed ambassador to Washington, a role
he fulfilled until 1999. In 2000, he became director of the Arab Fund for
Technical Assistance to African States at the Arab League. He was also posted
as Egypt's Ambassador in Moscow. Mr. Maher worked at the office of the
President as Advisor for National Security Affairs from 1971-74 and was
appointed Director of the Foreign Minister's office from 1978-1980. Mr. Maher
participated in the Camp David peace negotiations in 1978 and the Taba peace
negotiations in 1988 and has represented Egypt in many international
conferences. Born 14 September 1935, Mr. Maher received his law degree from
Cairo University and started his diplomatic career at the Foreign Ministry in
1957, serving as a junior diplomat in Congo, France and Switzerland in the
1960s.
Judge
Florence Ndepele Mwachande Mumba, Member of the AUPDJudge Florence Mumba was appointed, in May 2009, by
the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, as the reserve judge in the courts of
Cambodia for the prosecution of crimes committed during the period of
Democratic Kampuchea. Prior to this appointment, Judge Mumba served, from 2003 –
2005, as Judge of the Appeals Chamber for the United Nations International
Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. From 1999 – 2001,
Judge Mumba was elected Vice President of the U.N. International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the first African woman to hold the
office. In November 1997, Judge
Mumba was elected Judge of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia, at the Hague.
She served both as a
Trial Judge and a Presiding Judge. Judge Mumba was a member of the U.N.
Commission on the Status of Women from 1992 – 95, and served as Director for
Africa on the International Ombudsman Institute Board. From 1994 – 2003, Judge
Mumba served as Commissioner on the International Commission of Jurists. In
this capacity, she participated in drafting the Protocol to the African Charter
on Peoples and Human Rights. Currently, Judge Mumba is Chair of the Electoral
Commission of Zambia. A native of Zambia, Judge Mumba received her law degree in 1972,
from the University of Zambia.
Judge Mumba started her professional career as a Legal Aid Counsel at
Zambia’s Ministry of Justice, and became Director of Legal Aid Department in
1977, and became, in 1980, the first female High Court Judge in Zambia. In
1997, Judge Mumba was appointed as Supreme Court Judge.
Kabir Abdulfatah Mohammed, Member of the AUPDFrom 2006 – 08, Mr.
Mohammed served as Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Petroleum Technology
Development Fund. Prior to this appointment, he served as Legal Advisor and
Special Assistant to President Obasanjo’s Chief of Staff. From 1993 – 99, he
was also Legal Adviser to the National Security Adviser. In March 2005, Mr.
Mohammed was President Obasanjo’s Special Envoy to Sudan and the African Union
and worked on the establishment of an African Panel on Criminal Justice and
Reconciliation on Darfur. He also served as Nigeria’s Representative on the
African Union’s Panel of Legal Experts on the implementation of the U.N.
Security Council Resolution 1593.
Rakiya Omaar, Member of the AUPDMs. Omaar, a lawyer by
training, worked in the International Labour Organisation from 1980-1985, as a
special assistant on Africa to the Director-General. After a stint working as a
lawyer, she served as the first director of the human rights organization,
Africa Watch, from 1988-1992. In 1993, she became a founder and co-director of
the human rights group, African Rights, becoming sole director in 1998, a
position she retains today. Ms Omaar has researched and published many books,
reports and articles on human rights issues in Africa. Since 1994 to the
present, Ms Omaar’s work has focused, in particular, on the Rwanda genocide and
its consequences, and she has written extensively on the subject. Miss Omaar
studied history at the University of Oxford and law at the University of
Cambridge.
Experts
Barnabas
Philip Afako, Lawyer Professor
Salah Eddine Amer, University of Cairo, Egypt Aref
Mohammed Aref, Lawyer, Bar of Djibouti Catherine
Cisse, Executive Director, International Institute for Historical Justice and
Reconciliation, The Hague, Netherlands Professor
Tiyanjana Maluwa, Director, School of International Affairs, Pennsylvania State
University, US Dr.
Sydney Mufamadi, former South African Minister for
Safety and Security and later Minister for Provincial and Local Government. Currently, Honorary Professor at the Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan University, South Africa Rakiya
Omaar, Human Rights Lawyer, Director, African Rights, and also a member of the
AUPD Professor
Jean-Emmanuel Pondi, Head of the Department of International Politics at the
International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC), University of Yaoundé Dr. Alex
de Waal, Program Director, Social Science Research Council, New York, US