Theodoor Cornelis (Theo) van Boven (born 16 May 1934,

Voorburg Voorburg is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it makes up the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has a population of about 39,000 peopl ...

) is a Dutch

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the U ...

and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

. In 1977, he was appointed director of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

' Division for Human Rights, a precursor of the

UN Human Rights Office The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nati ...

. From 1986 to 1991, he was the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Reparation to Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights and, from 2001 to 2004, Special Rapporteur on

Torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

. He is also a member of the

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists—including senior judges, attorneys and academics—who work to develop national and inte ...

. From February 1994 to December 1994, he was the first registrar of the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

. In 1985, he was awarded the

Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob vo ...

for "speaking out on human rights abuse without fear or favour in the international community", in 2004, the Wateler Peace Prize and in 2013, the

Light of Truth Award The Light of Truth Award is a human rights award which is presented nearly annually by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), an NGO aiming for the promotion of democracy and human rights for the Tibetan people. The award is presented since 1 ...

. From 1995 to 2016 he was jury member of the

Nuremberg International Human Rights Award The Nuremberg International Human Rights Award is a German award founded on September 17, 1995. The date chosen is significant; 60 years earlier, the Nuremberg Race Laws were adopted. Also, on September 17, 1939, Poland was invaded by the Sov ...

. On 16 December 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution 60/147, titled ' Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law'. These principles are largely inspired from the work of Van Boven and

Cherif Bassiouni Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni (Arabic: محمود شريف بسيوني ; 9 December 1937 – 25 September 2017) was an emeritus professor of law at DePaul University, where he taught from 1964 to 2012. He served in numerous United Nations positio ...

and are known as the Van Boven/ Bassiouni Principles. In November 2009, he was given a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

'' from the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires ( es, Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBA) is a public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Established in 1821, it is the premier institution of higher learning in the country and one of the most presti ...

. Van Boven has stated his support for the

Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

, an organisation which advocates for democratic reform in the United Nations, and the creation of a more accountable international political system.

Documentary film

He is starring the

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

''The Subversives''. The plot centers about his job as director of UN Human Rights affaires of the late 70s and early 80s. The film tells his commitment for the many thousands of disappearances and refugees, his actions against military dictatorships and his facing with UN Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar.The documentary film ''the subversives''
Retrieved 30 March 2020.

References

External links

*BASIC PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES ON THE RIGHT TO A REMEDY AND REPARATION FOR VICTIMS OF VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMANITARIAN LAW
/small> ("Van Boven Principles")

with an introductory note by Theo van Boven * ttp://albumacademicum.uva.nl/id/id001857 Prof. mr. dr. T.C. van Boven, 1934 -at the Amsterdam University Album Academicum {{DEFAULTSORT:Boven, Theo Van 1934 births Living people Dutch jurists United Nations Special Rapporteurs on torture Leiden University alumni University of Amsterdam faculty Maastricht University faculty Commanders of the Order of Orange-Nassau Recipients of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia officials People from Voorburg People from Leidschendam-Voorburg Dutch officials of the United Nations

Documentary film

Further reading

References

External links