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Amina Mohamed
Photograph via Wikimedia Commons
Diplomacy & Public Service Landmark

Amina Mohamed

born 1961

The first woman to chair the WTO General Council

Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Kenya Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.

Why they are here

She chaired the General Council of the World Trade Organization — the first woman to do it — and used the chair to win developing countries the right to make cheap medicines.

Amina Mohamed is a Kenyan lawyer and diplomat who served as Kenya's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva from 2000 to 2006.

She was the first woman to chair the General Council of the World Trade Organization, and the first woman and first African to chair the Council of the International Organization for Migration. As WTO General Council chair she brokered the amendment to the TRIPS agreement allowing countries without manufacturing capacity of their own to obtain essential medicines for HIV and tuberculosis. She later served in the Kenyan cabinet and stood for Director-General of the WTO.
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