Professor Abdoulaye Bathily is a rights activist per excellence, an engaging leftist scholar, international parliamentarian and diplomat who had served in and out of government, in Senegal and internationally.
He was at different times the Minister of Environment and Nature Conservation; Minister of Energy and Water Resources; and Minister of State in the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal.
He was a Vice President of Senegalese National Assembly and a two-time Presidential candidate in the Senegalese general elections. As a member of the ECOWAS Parliament, he was Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
Professor Bathily served as Deputy Special Representative in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). He also served as Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Central Africa as well as the Head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) in Libreville, Gabon.
He was the Chairman of the Network for Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa (NESDA) and Chairman of the Committee of African Ministers of Environment. He bagged a PhD in History from the University of Birmingham in 1975.