Commissioner

Prof. AMOUGUI Tite Appolinaire

Biography

Commissioner

Prof Dr Amougui Apollinaire Tite

Super Scale Minister Plenipotentiary

Prof Dr Apollinaire Tite Amougui, born on 6 February 1958 in Douala, is originally from the Centre Region of Cameroon.

Prof Dr Apollinaire Tite Amougui is a career diplomat of the rank of Super Scale Minister Plenipotentiary. During his time at university in Cameroon and Europe, he conducted  research and taught, gaining professional experience and expertise in national and international public service. He holds a postgraduate doctorate in International Relations (IRIC, 1986) and a PhD in Human Rights and International Politics, which he obtained in 1999 from the Université Libre in Berlin, Germany. He has also obtained a number of specialised certificates in human rights training and research from institutions in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Since 2000, he has periodically taught at the University of Yaoundé II (IRIC), the Catholic University of Central Africa, EIFORCES and the École Supérieure Internationale de Guerre (ESIG) in Burkina Faso, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Germany (at Humboldt University and Potsdam University). As part of his research activities, he has published over a dozen scientific articles and collective works on the promotion and protection of human rights, the rights of the African child, women’s rights and the rights of internally displaced people. He has directed and co-directed over three hundred doctoral and post-doctoral theses in Cameroon and Germany.

Prof Dr Amougui has extensive professional experience, expertise and skills. He held numerous senior positions in the central and external services of the Ministry of External Relations of Cameroon from 1988 to 1995 and again from 2006 to 2015. He supervised the 2004 presidential election in Cameroon on behalf of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, and observed the 2011 presidential elections at Cameroon’s diplomatic missions’ polling stations in Bern, Brussels, Berlin and The Hague.  From 2011 to 2012, he served as National Chairman of the Interdepartmental Commission for the Election of Refugee Status.

At international level, Mr AMOUGUI was recruited by Transparency International Berlin on an open-ended contract in 1999, but he turned it down for patriotic reasons. In 2003, he was selected for a position as Director of Research for Africa at Amnesty International, based in London, after an interview which was met with a standing ovation. Once again, he resigned from this position in order to focus on his career. In September 2012, he participated in the 65th session of the UN General Assembly in New York as part of theMinistry of External Relations’ central services. He also participated in several fora of the Organisation Internationale de la  Francophonie (OIF) in Paris, Cairo and Sharm El Sheikh. From November 2006 to November 2012, he was Special Adviser to the Forum of Former Heads of State and Government, under the authority of H.E. President Nelson Mandela, Honorary President of the Forum until his death, and H.E. Joachim Chissano, the current President. In this capacity, he was responsible for preparing the offer of good offices addressed to Mr Jean Pierre Bemba and Joseph Kabila by Their Excellencies Joachim Chissano (Mozambique), Pierre Buyoya (Burundi) and Nicéphore Soglo (Benin), following the DRC presidential elections of October 2006. Mr Amougui will assume similar functions in other peacemaking processes relating to the socio-political crises in the Great Lakes region (Burundi), Côte d’Ivoire and CAR.

In 2005, he built on his expertise by setting up the Association for the Promotion of Human Rights, Refugees, Democracy and Research on Peace (Declaration No. 0000/RDA/JO6/BAPP of 7 January 2005). Through these activities, that he has established capacity-building partnerships for the benefit of National Human Rights Institutions in Cameroon, Africa and Germany.

He has also carried out consultancy missions on human rights for Equitas (Canada), Op-Cit Research (Great Britain) and UN Women (New York).

He is fluent in three international languages: German, English and French. Since 19 February 2021, he has been a member of the Cameroon Human Rights Commission (CHRC).