Manfred Nowak

Education

1986     Dr. habil of Constitutional Law (University of Vienna)
1975     LL.M (Columbia University New York)
1973     Dr. Iuris (University of Vienna)

Other Functions:

since 2014
Head, Interdisciplinary Research Center Human Rights, Vienna University

since 2012
Vice Chair of the Management Board of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights in Vienna

since 2012
Scientific Director of the Vienna Master of Arts in Human Rights, University of Vienna

since 2012
Member of the OMV (international oil and gas company) Advisory Board for Resourcefulness

since 2010
Vice-President of the Austrian UNESCO Commission

since 2010
Honorary Member of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Geneva

since 2010
Consultant for the Danish Institute for Human Rights


since 1998
Austrian National Director Representing the University of Vienna in the EMA (European Masters Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation)  Programme, appointed by the Rector of the University of Vienna.
From 2000 to 2007 EMA Chairperson

- EMA is based in Venice, was initiated by the European Commission and is jointly organised by 41 European Universities. As a model for similar multidisciplinary educational programmes, EMA was awarded the 2006 UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education (Honourable Mention).

since 1995

member and Honorary Member of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Geneva
       - Fact-finding mission on Tibet and trainings on human rights in Taiwan

Former Relevant Experience

2012-2015
Head of Visiting Commission of the Austrian Ombudsman Board (national mechanism for prevention of torture) 

2014
Holder of the Austrian Visiting Chair at the University of Stanford, California

2008-2014
Head of the Interdisciplinary Research Platform “Human Rights in the European Context” at the University of Vienna

2012-2013
Chair of an International Review Committee on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (iccpr) appointed by the Government of Taiwan

2009-2013
Head of the Inter-disciplinary Phd Research School “Empowerment through Human Rights” at Vienna University

2009-2013
Chair of COST Action “The Role of the EU in UN Human Rights Reform”

2008-2012
Member of the Austrian Monitoring Committee established in accordance with Article 33 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

2007-2012
FRALEX Senior Expert/International Expert to the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency which was established in March 2007

2000-2012
Head of an Independent Human Rights Commission at the Austrian Ministry of Interior (under the Human Rights Advisory Board of the Ministry)

- preventive visits to places of police detention and control of the use of force by Austrian law enforcement personnel;

2009-2010
Member of the Coordinating Committee of UN Special Procedures

2008-2010
Member and Rapporteur of a Panel of Eminent Persons (later renamed to Panel on Human Dignity) selected by the Swiss Foreign Minister to draft and promote an Agenda for Human Rights which was launched in Geneva on 5 December 2008

2004-2010
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment

- Fact-finding missions to Georgia, Mongolia, Nepal, China, Jordan, Paraguay, Nigeria, Togo, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Denmark and Greenland, Moldova and Equatorial Guinea, Uruguay, Kazakhstan, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, and Greece; joint reports on Guantánamo Bay, Darfur and Secret Detention in the Fight against Terrorism.

1995-2010
Member of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Geneva
- Fact-finding mission on Tibet and trainings on human rights in Taiwan.

2008-2009
Swiss Chairof Human Rights, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva

2002-2006
Member of the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights

- Network set up by the European Commission on the initiative of the European Parliament which published, inter alia, annual reports on the situation of human rights in the EU and its member States.

2001-2006
U.N. Expert on Disappearances

- Examination of the existing international criminal, humanitarian and human rights framework for the protection of persons from enforced or involuntary disappearances

- Adviser to the Working Group of the Commission on Human Rights drafting a Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which was adopted by the General Assembly in December 2006.

2001-2006
Consultant to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on a human rights based approach to poverty reduction strategies, which led to the adoption of the Principles and Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies

2004
Visiting Professor at the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) in Venice

2002-2003
Olof Palme Visiting Professor on Human Rights at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) at the University of Lund.

1996-2003
Judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo elected by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe

- 1998 Vice-President;

- The Human Rights Chamber was established under the Dayton Peace Agreement of 1995;

1989-2002
Professor of Law at the Austrian Federal Academy of Public Administration in Vienna.

1993-2001
Expert Member of the U.N. Working Group on Involuntary and Enforced Disappearances

- Fact-finding missions to Yemen and Sri Lanka.

1994-1997
U.N. Expert in Charge of the Special Process on Missing Persons in the Former Yugoslavia

- Started a process of identification of missing persons through exhumation of mortal remains;

- Initiated International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).

1993
COODINATOR of NGO-INPUT INTO THE SOCOND WORLD CONFERENCE ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIENNA

1986-1993
Member of the Austrian Delegation to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights

1987-1989
Director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) at the University of Utrecht


1973-1987
Assistant and Associate Professor at the Institute of Constitutional and Administrative Law of the University of Vienna (with Felix Ermacora)

- Sabbatical leaves for research and field-studies in the USA (Columbia University New York), Latin America, Africa, UK (LSE London), Netherlands (Institute of Public and European Law, University of Amsterdam), Germany (Institute of Public and International Law, University of Bielefeld), and the United Nations at Geneva.



Further Credentials

Author of more than 500 Publications in the fields of constitutional, administrative and international law, human rights as well as development studies

Editor or Advisory Board member of Periodicals and Series e.g. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Austrian Review of International and European Law (ariel), BIM Human Rights Study Series, European Yearbook on Human Rights, Taiwan Human Rights Journal

Patronage and Memberships: e.g., Redress (Patron), International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT-Patron), Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT-Board Member)

Human Rights Network: Due to numerous research activities and various functions in the field of human rights for many years establishment of a large personal network with key actors in the field of international human rights protection

Various Human Rights Fact Finding Missions for NGOs and companies, e.g. to Brazil (for the Brazilian Bishops Conference), Surinam (for International Alert), India (Tibet mission for the ICJ), Yemen and Iraq (OMV).

2014
Golden Otto Hahn Medal of Peace for the Achievements in the Field of Human Rights, United Nations Association of Germany, Berlin

2013
University of Oslo’s Lisl und Leo Eitinger Human Rights Award

2012
Prof. et Dr. honoris causa Eötvös Lorand University Budapest

2011
IAFS 2005 Hong Kong Forensic Foundation Lecture Award,
presented at the 19^th IAFS Triennial Meeting of the International Association of Forensic Sciences, Funchal-Madeira-Portugal, September 2011

2010
Human Rights Award, Panteion University Athens

2008
Human Rights Medal, University of Magdeburg

2008
Medal of honour, European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation, Venice

2007
Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights for outstanding achievements for services to international human rights

1994
UNESCO Prize for the teaching of Human Rights (honourable mention) in recognition of the outstanding contribution to the development of the teaching of human rights.