Dr Jean Désiré Maxime Ferrari, KSS, OBE (French pronunciation: [dʒin deziʁe mæksim ferˈraːri; 27 January 1930 – 29 June 2021) was a politician and former obstetrician who held several different positions in the government of the Seychelles.

[1][2] He was widely regarded as an activist against corrupt governmental practices and a champion of human rights and democracy in the African island nations of the Indian Ocean.

He left Seychelles for the first time in July 1949, on board the SS Karanja, a British India steamer, to travel to Europe via Bombay.

Upon his return to Seychelles, he worked in both the Baie Sainte Anne cottage hospital and the local ward situated on the island of La Digue.

In 1983 he also represented Seychelles at the Organisation of African Unity Summit in Addis Ababa, the Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting in New Delhi, and the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

In collaboration with UNECA, he organised the African Regional Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development held in Kampala, Uganda, in June 1989.

Since retiring from UNEP in 1990, Dr Ferrari devoted his time to the creation of socially democratic organisations with support that he garnered from groups within Seychelles and abroad.

He identified himself as Roman Catholic, and was elected as the first president of the Union Chrétienne Seychelloise, an organisation designed to promote cultural, moral and Christian values.

At the time of his death in June 2021 he was in the process of writing a new book with excerpts of his various speeches concerning issues such as democracy and the environment, as well as a range of social, political and cultural themes.