Manouchehr Ganji

Manouchehr Ganji (; born 1931) is a human rights activist and a former Minister of Education of Iran from 1976 until 1979.

Life Ganji was born in Tehran, Iran. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in political science and international relations from the University of Kentucky, his doctorate degree in international law — international protection of human rights — from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva, which then dedicated to him a place in its Hall of Inspiring Stories, and his post doctorate degree from the University of Cambridge.

Ganji was the Minister of Education of Iran between the years 1976 and 1978. He served as professor of international law and international organizations at Tehran University from 1966 to 1979. He was the founder and the first director of the university's Center for Graduate International Studies (1966–1971). He served as the dean of Faculty of Law and Political Science of Tehran University (1971–1974) and he acted as the advisor to the prime minister of Iran, Amir Abbas Hoveida, between 1974 and 1976. Ganji was also the founder of the Iranian Committee for Human Rights, 1967, and its first secretary-general, 1967–1970. He has written 27 books in Persian, English and French and many articles on the topics of international protection of human rights, civil disobedience and international law.

Between 1961 and 1962, he served on the secretariat of the International Labour Organization and the division on the Application of the ILO Conventions and Recommendations (in Geneva). From 1962 to 1965, he worked for the UN Division of Human Rights at the UN Headquarters in New York.

During the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Ganji convinced the Shah to invite the International Committee of Red Cross to open up permanent offices in Iran, to visit and inspect Iranian prisons and guarantee that no torture was taking place there.

Between 1969 and 1973, Ganji served as the U.N. Special Rapporteur in charge of the preparation of a comprehensive study on conditions of economic, social and cultural rights in all member countries of the United Nations. The U.N. published this global study in 1974 in all its official languages. In 1973 and 1976, Ganji was elected by the UN Commission on Human Rights to serve, in his personal capacity, as a member of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (each time for a 3-year term). In 1976, he was also elected by the Conference of States Parties to the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to serve a three-year term in his personal capacity as a member of the Committee on Human Rights, responsible for overseeing the implementation of the covenant.

Ganji is the author of many books and articles in Persian, English, and French. In addition to his 5 volumes of the United Nations Reports; these include university textbooks on international law and international organizations (four volumes in Persian), international protection of human rights, apartheid and racial discrimination in southern Africa, Etre Persan (a personal political memoir in French), a study of the developments of the past fifty years in Iran written in Persian, entitled Atash-e Nahofteh (The Hidden Fire), and Defying the Iranian Revolution: From a Minister to the Shah to a Leader of Resistance.