Kumi Naidoo Kumi Naidoo Kumi Naidoo (born 1965) is a South African-born human rights activist of Indian descent who is the current Secretary-General of Amnesty International. Naidoo was the first African head of Greenpeace, an international environmentalist group, serving as its International Executive Director from 2009 to 2015. After battling apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s through the Helping Hands Youth Organisation, Naidoo led global campaigns to end poverty and protect human rights. He has served as the Secretary-General of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and of Civicus, an international alliance for citizen participation, from 1998 to
Jay Naidoo appointed Secretary General of the Sweet, Food and Allied Workers' Union (SFAWU). In this capacity, he led the country's largest ever nationwide strike with around 3.5 million participants in 1991, paralyzing factories and businesses across South Africa and leaving people without the basic services normally provided by black employees. In 1995, Naidoo served on the selection panel appointed by President Mandela to interview and shortlist candidates for South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. From 2002 until 2015, Naidoo was Chair of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Partnership Council of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) headquartered