Kéba Mbaye (5 August 1924 – 11 January 2007) was a Senegalese judge and member of both the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

and the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

. Mbaye was born in

Kaolack Kaolack ( ar, كاولاك; wo, Kawlax) is a town of 172,305 people (2002 census) on the north bank of the Saloum River and the N1 road in Senegal. It is the capital of the Kaolack Region, which borders The Gambia to the south. Kaolack is an ...

French Senegal The history of Senegal is commonly divided into a number of periods, encompassing the prehistoric era, the precolonial period, colonialism, and the contemporary era. Paleolithic The earliest evidence of human life is found in the valley of the ...

on 5 August 1924. He was a member of the International Olympic Committee from 1973 to 2002. An associate of

Juan Antonio Samaranch Juan Antonio Samaranch y Torelló, 1st Marquess of Samaranch (Catalan: ''Joan Antoni Samaranch i Torelló'', ; 17 July 1920 – 21 April 2010) was a Spanish sports administrator under the Franco regime (1973–1977) who served as the seventh Pre ...

, he served as IOC vice-president from 1988 to 1992, member of the executive board from 1984 to 1988 and 1993 to 1998, and chair of its ethics commission since 1999. He also served as president of the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...

, the highest Olympic tribunal. Mbaye helped in bringing

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

from Olympic exile after the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era. Later, at the height of the

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

bid scandal, Samaranch appointed him to chair a new ethics commission to police the conduct of fellow IOC members. He also headed the IOC panel on legal matters. A legal scholar, Mbaye served as vice-president of the

and was Honorary Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Senegal from 1964 to 1982. Mbaye was President of the

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists—including senior judges, attorneys and academics—who work to develop national and inte ...

from 1977 to 1985 and Commissioner from 1972 to 1987. His published legal works include ''The Realities of the Black World and Human Rights''; ''Family Law in Black Africa and Madagascar''; and ''Human Rights in Africa. The International Olympic Committee and South Africa, Analysis and Illustration of a humanitarian sport policy''. Mbaye married Mariette Diarra in 1950 and had eight children. He died on 11 January 2007 in

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 20 ...

. Upon his death, IOC President

Jacques Rogge Jacques Jean Marie Rogge, Count Rogge (, ; 2 May 1942 – 29 August 2021) was a Belgian sports administrator and physician who served as the eighth President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2001 to 2013. In 2013, Rogge beca ...

released this statement: "Keba Mbaye was one of those men whose humanity and charisma mark you for life. His devotion to the Olympic movement and its values was unfailing. We have lost a great man."

References

Further reading