Mohamed Chande Othman is a former Chief Justice of Tanzania, a position he held from 28 December 2010 to 18 January 2017, after stints as both a High Court and Appeal Court Judge. On 21 December 2022, Othman was appointed Chairperson of the Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia.

He currently holds the following posts: Chancellor of Ardhi University, Tanzania; Chairperson, Council of Sokoine University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences; member of the Board of Trustees, The Aga Khan University; and member of the Elders Council of the African Judges and Jurists Forum. Aside from acting as one of the Special Advisers (without portfolio) to the Prosecutors of the International Criminal Court, Othman also serves as an Eminent Person, appointed by the UN Secretary-General under a UN General Assembly mandate and charged with the examination of new information relating to the tragic death on 17-18th September 1961 of the 2^nd UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, and other members of his party. In 2019-2020 he acted as one of nine experts appointed by the Assembly of State Parties to the Independent Expert Review of the International Criminal Court and the Rome Statute System. 

Justice Othman’s previous experience includes that of Prosecutor General of East Timor, Chief of Prosecutions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and Senior Legal Adviser to the Prosecutor of the ICTR. He has also served as a member of the UN Human Rights Council’s High-Level Commission of Inquiry into the Situation in Lebanon following the Israel-Lebanon Armed Conflict in 2006, and as the UN Human Rights Council‘s Independent Expert on the human rights situation in the Sudan (2009-2010). In addition, he has also worked with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

His publications include books and peer-reviewed articles on international humanitarian law, refugee law, criminal law and evidence, and peacekeeping.