Manfred Nowak

Professor Manfred Nowak carries out this function in close cooperation with the Global Campus of Human Rights (GC) in Venice, where he is Secretary General,x as well as with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights (BIM) in Vienna, which he founded and co-directs.

In addition, Manfred Nowak holds a Professorship of International Human Rights at the University of Vienna, where he is the Scientific Director of the Vienna Master of Arts (MA) in Human Rights.

Manfred Nowak was Professor of International Law and Human Rights at various universities, such as Utrecht, Lund, Stanford and the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and has published more than 600 articles and books, including various language editions of the CCPR-Commentary, a CAT-Commentary and an introduction to the International Human Rights Regime. His latest books look at human rights as an answer to growing economic inequality (Menschenrechte – Eine Antwort auf die wachsende ökonomische Ungleichheit, Konturen Hamburg 2016) and the limits of privatization from a human rights perspective (Human Rights or Global Capitalism, Pennsylvania Press 2017).

In the past, Manfred Nowak has also carried out various expert functions for the United Nations, the Council of Europe (CoE), the European Union (EU) and other inter-governmental organizations. Most importantly, he served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (2004 to 2010), United Nations Expert on Enforced Disappearances (1993 to 2006), as Vice-Chairperson of the Management Board of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Vienna (2012-2017), and as one of eight international judges in the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo (1996 to 2003).

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Promoting and Protecting Human Rights: a Global Overview (GCHumanRights)

In times of violence and crisis, human rights are important safeguards. In times of peace, security and development, they are important pillars sustaining our common humanity. They are more than moral or legal concepts: they are the lymph of our lives. For them to run effectively, we need to [...]

Children Deprived of Liberty: Learning from the UN Global Study (GCHumanRights)

Despite the fact that the Convention on the Rights of the Child affirms that, in principle, children should not be detained and deprivation of liberty should be a measure of last resort, millions of children in the world are locked away. To address this problem, the United Nations appointed [...]