Mesfin Wolde-Mariam is a founding member of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO). He has served as its Chairman, and currently, he is a member of the Executive Committee. EHRCO was founded in 1991, and currently enjoys an observer status in the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, is a member of World Organization Against Torture and is also a corresponding member of the International Federation of Human Rights.

He was a Professor of Geography at Addis Ababa University where he retired from in 1987. Professor Mesfin had been interested in the issue of famine in the context of Ethiopia and has been studying the phenomenon since the late fifties. He is known for the assertion of his findings and recommendations that famine is largely a result of social causes and that unless basic structural changes were implemented, the cycle would continue. Such assertions and recommendations of land reform led him into activism decades ago. He has since been an advocate of the peasantry and the disadvantaged in general. Professor Mesfin campaigned for these changes at great risk to his personal safety.

Of note is the fact that Professor Mesfin Wolde-Mariam has always asserted that such changes can be promoted only through peaceful and non-violent means. He withdrew his support of the Ethiopian Student Movement in the sixties, when armed struggle was embraced as a means of achieving these goals. Through the seventies and the eighties, he had consistently been vocal in denouncing the violence that increasingly tainted the Ethiopian political scene. Over the decades, his concern that famine is primarily caused by social systems was made even stronger by the effects of the civil strife that plagued the country.

At the height of the civil war in 1990, Professor Mesfin issued a call for an immediate end to the war, with specific recommendations for a lasting peaceful resolution to the conflict. Both sides took exception to the call, with the allegation that it was a conspiracy with the opponent. Obviously, this carried a great risk to him.

In 1991, Professor Mesfin, along with concerned compatriots founded EHRCO, which he was elected to chair repeatedly. He made the point that terms of leadership need to be limited and that he should not be considered for Chairmanship any longer. However, he still serves as a member of the Executive Committee. His arrest along with Berhanu Nega PhD., on May 8, 2001 falls on the anniversary of the assassination of Assefa Maru, another member of EHRCO's Executive Committee. These three are not the only victims of retaliation against EHRCO.

In June of 1994, Professor Mesfin was nominated to the Robert Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award, on the premise that he has, "Stood up to repression at great personal risk in the non-violent pursuit of human rights".

Professor Mesfin is a Senior Fulbright Scholar (71, 86, and '87). He has published several books and articles. His latest book, "The Horn of Africa: Conflict and Poverty" was published in 1999. Among his other books are "Rural Vulnerability to Famine in Ethiopia" and "Suffering under God's Environment".