Abdoul Diop

“Restoring Public Trust in the Judicial System in Senegal” (October 2024–February 2025)

Abdoul Diop is a Senegalese judge currently serving as chamber president of the Court of Appeals in the Senegalese city of Ziguinchor. He is also founding president of the Dakar-based Senegalese Association for the Promotion of International Criminal Justice. He previously served for over ten years on the Dakar Court of Appeals and for three years as an assistant judge on the Supreme Court of Appeals (Cour de Cassation). As secretary general of the National Association of Judges in Senegal from 2017 to 2021, he was a prominent advocate for the rule of law, separation of powers, and judicial independence. In addition to his legal expertise, Diop is well known for his work promoting human rights: from 2003 to 2011, he served on the Senegalese Committee for Human Rights, where he drafted reports and monitored human rights legislation. In 2012, he was a visiting scholar at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. During his fellowship, Diop is developing a roadmap for judicial reform in Senegal, with an eye toward restoring public trust in the Senegalese judiciary. He aims to publish his findings in a policy memorandum geared toward public stakeholders and civil society groups interested in judicial reform.