Manfred Nowak (born 26 June 1950 in

Bad Aussee Bad Aussee (; Central Bavarian: ''Bod Ossee'') is a town in the Austrian state of Styria, located at the confluence of the three sources of the Traun River in the Ausseerland region. Bad Aussee serves as the economic and cultural center of the St ...

) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

expert, who served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture from 2004 to 2010. He is Secretary General of the Global Campus of Human Rights (formerly European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation, EIUC) in Venice, Italy, Professor of International Human Rights, and Scientific Director of the Vienna Master of Arts in Applied Human Rights at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He is also co-founder and former Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights and a former judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2016, he was appointed Independent Expert leading the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty.

Career

Nowak was a student of Felix Ermacora, and cooperated with him until Ermacora's death in 1995. They co-founded the '' Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Menschenrechte'' (with Hannes Tretter) in 1992. In addition to his function as Professor of Constitutional and International Law and Human Rights at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

, Nowak was: * Director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

, Netherlands (1987–1989) * Head of the Law Department of the Austrian Federal Academy of Public Administration in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria (1989–2001) * Olof Palme Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

, Sweden (2002–2003) * Visiting Professor at EIUC in Venice, Italy (2004) * Swiss Chair of Human Rights at the

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (, abbreviated IHEID), commonly referred to as Geneva Graduate Institute, is a graduate-level research university in Geneva, Switzerland dedicated to international relations, dev ...

in Geneva, Switzerland (2008–2009) * Austrian Visiting Chair at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, Palo Alto, USA (2014). Since 2016, he is the Secretary General of the Global Campus of Human Rights in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, Italy, which is responsible for eight Master's programmes on human rights in all world regions, and many other activities in the field of human rights and democracy education. He regularly teaches at various other universities, including the American University in Washington, DC. As

United Nations Special Rapporteur Special rapporteur (or independent expert) is the title given to independent human rights experts whose expertise is called upon by the United Nations (UN) to report or advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. De ...

on Torture, Nowak was one of the five authors of a United Nations report on the detention of captives at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (2006) and one of four authors of a UN report on secret detention in the fight against terrorism (2010). In 2005, Nowak visited China, claiming that torture remained "widespread" there. He also complained of Chinese officials interfering with his work. In September 2006, he alleged that torture may be more of a problem in Iraq since the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

than under

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

's regime. Much of the torture, he argued, is carried out by

security forces Security forces are statutory organizations with internal security mandates. In the legal context of several countries, the term has variously denoted police and military units working in concert, or the role of irregular military and paramilitar ...

militias A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or serve ...

and

insurgents An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well ...

. From 6 to 9 November 2006, he presented at the international panel at

Gadjah Mada University Gadjah Mada University (; , abbreviated as UGM) is a public research university located in Sleman, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Officially founded on 19 December 1949, Gadjah Mada University is one of the oldest and largest institut ...

for adoption of

Yogyakarta Principles The Yogyakarta Principles is a document about human rights in the areas of sexual orientation and gender identity that was published as the outcome of an international meeting of human rights groups in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in November 2006. T ...

and has become one of the 29 signatories. In February 2008, Nowak was a founding member of the 'Research Platform Human Rights in the European Context' at the

. As internationally renowned expert in the field of human rights, he carried out various independent expert functions for the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE as well as for NGOs and in the corporate sector. The most important expert functions are the following: * 1986–1993: Member of the Austrian Delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights * 1993: Coordinator of NGO-Input into the Second World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna * 1993–2001: Expert Member of the UN Working Group on Involuntary or Enforced Disappearances * 1994–1997: UN Expert in charge of the Special Process on Missing Persons or Enforced Disappearances * since 1995: Member and Honorary Member of the

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is supported by an International Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland, and staffed by lawyers drawn from a wide range of jurisdi ...

(ICJ), Geneva * 1996–2003: Judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo * 2000–2015: Head of an Independent Human Rights Commission at the Austrian Ministry of Interior and the Austrian Ombudsman Board (National Preventive Mechanism) * 2001–2006: UN Expert on Disappearances * 2002–2006: Member of the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights * 2004–2010: United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment * 2008–2010: Member and Rapporteur of a Panel of Eminent Persons * since 2010: Vice-President of the Austrian UNESCO-Commission * since 2011: Member of the Advisory Board of the

European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) is an independent, nonprofit non-governmental organization with the aim of enforcing human rights through legal means. Using litigation, it tries to hold state and non-state actors r ...

(ECCHR), Berlin * 2012–2017: Vice-Chair of the Management Board of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, Vienna * since 2012: Chair of an International Review Committee on assessing compliance by the Government of Taiwan with the two UN Human Rights Covenants * since 2012: Member of the OMV Advisory Board for Resourcefulness * since 2016: Independent Expert leading the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty Nowak is author of more than 600 publication in the field of constitutional, administrative and international law, human rights as well as development studies. Key publications: * 2003: Introduction to the International Human Rights Regime, Leiden (Spanish translation 2009, Chinese translation 2010), 365 pages * 2005: UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights – CCPR Commentary, 2nd edition, Kehl am Rhein/Strassbourg/Arlington 1989, 946 pages * 2008: The United Nations Convention against Torture – A Commentary (together with Elizabeth McArthur), Oxford, 1649 pages * 2012: All Human Rights for All – Vienna Manual on Human Rights (edited together with Karolina Januszewski, Tina Hofstaetter), Vienna/Graz, 672 pages * 2015: Menschenrechte – Eine Antwort auf die wachsende oekonomische Ungleichheit, Vienna/Hamburg, 176 pages * 2017: Human Rights or Global Capitalism, The Limits of Privatisation, Pennsylvania, 256 pages * 2017: Torture – An Expert's Confrontation with an Everyday Evil, Pennsylvania, 191 pages (forthcoming)

Honours

In 1994, Nowak was awarded the UNESCO Prize for the Teaching of Human Rights (honorable mention), in recognition of the outstanding contribution to the development of the teaching of human rights. In 2007, he received the Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights for outstanding achievements for services to international human rights and the University of Oslo’s Human Rights Award for his "defense of fundamental human rights" in 2013. In 2014, Manfred Nowak was honored with the

Otto Hahn Peace Medal The Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold is named after the German nuclear chemist and 1944 Nobel Laureate Otto Hahn, an honorary citizen of Berlin. The medal is in memory of his worldwide involvement in the politics of peace and humanitarian causes, ...

.Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold
intlaw.univie.ac.at

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nowak, Manfred United Nations Special Rapporteurs on torture Living people 1950 births Academic staff of the University of Vienna Academic staff of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies 20th-century Austrian lawyers Austrian human rights activists People from Bad Aussee University of Vienna alumni Columbia Law School alumni 21st-century Austrian lawyers

Career

Honours

See also

References

External links