Rev. Dr. Ganoune Diop

Ganoune Diop, PhD, is the Director of the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department (PARL) at the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters in Washington D.C. USA. He is the Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA). Dr. Diop is graced with a fascinating combination of gifts and expertise in Biblical Exegesis and Theology, Philology with an emphasis on Ancient Near East languages and civilizations, Comparative World Religions and World Philosophies.

He earned a master’s degree in Philology at the School of Languages and Civilizations of the Ancient Near East in Paris. He earned a diploma in New Testament In-depth Studies with a focus on Apocalyptic Literature at the Catholic University of Paris. He completed postgraduate studies in Semiotics Studies and applied Linguistics at the University of Paris Sorbonne. He graduated from Andrews University, Michigan with a PhD in Old Testament Studies in 1995.

At a diplomatic level, Dr. Diop was the Permanent Representative of the SDA Church at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, until 2015. Since 2015, Dr. Diop holds the position of Secretary of the Conference of General Secretaries of the Christian World Communions, an organization that sums over 2 billion Christians. He is board member of the Global Christian Forum.

Dr. Diop extensively works to foster mutual understanding between Christian faith traditions and other world religions and philosophies. He regularly trains leaders in capacity building in reference to peace, justice, and human rights: the pillars of the United Nations. He was granted a doctorate Honoris Causa for his work in helping promote a culture of human rights grounded on human dignity. He is executive editor of Religious Freedom World Report and executive editor of Fides et Libertas.

In 2017, he was the recipient of the Thomas Kane Religious Freedom Award, from the well-known J. Rueben Clark Law Society in Philadelphia, United States of America. In 2019, he received the Award of Excellence: Ambassador for Liberty and Peace - Jean Nussbaum & Eleanor Roosevelt at the United Nations in Geneva. In 2020, Dr. Diop has been honored with the Charles Elliott Weniger Award for Excellence.

Dr. Diop has been a key presenter at the yearly symposium entitled “The Role of Religion and faith-based groups in International Affairs. One of his highly valued contributions was entitled: Human Dignity as Foundation for Human Rights: A Normative Overlapping Consensus. Key of the issues he contributes to are justice and peace, the other pillars the international community has identified as necessary to peaceful coexistence. Right from the beginning of his work, Dr. Ganoune Diop has promoted a human rights culture based on universal values, emphasizing the importance of human rights in all aspects of public life, and in particular the importance of freedom and the involvement of religious communities in the development of social welfare. Through an interdisciplinary approach, he offers a unique perspective to the concept of human rights bringing together the theological, philosophical and economic and legal approaches to current challenges to the whole human family. Dr. Diop has lived in three continents. A truly ross-cultural person determined to respect and honor every person created in the image of God.