Medani previously served as head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) office in the West Bank and Gaza, Chief of Mission of the OHCHR in Zagreb, Croatia, legal advisor to the Special Representative of the U.N Secretary-General in Iraq as well as Afghanistan, and a Regional Representative for the OHCHR in Beirut, Lebanon. During his tenure in Baghdad, Medani witnessed and was injured in the Canal Hotel bombing that killed former United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights and Special Representative to Iraq, Sérgio Vieira de Mello.