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 1954, Naidoo enrolled at the University of Durban-Westville to study for a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in pursuance of a medical career in 1975 to be a medical doctor but his studies were interrupted by the political turmoil at the time because of student uprisings. Naidoo became active in the South African Students' Organisation (SASO) that was banned in 1977 just after its leader Steve Biko was murdered in police detention. He then became a community-based organizer working with grassroots civic structures. He joined the Federation of South African Trade Unions as a volunteer in 1979. Naidoo was later