Prof. Dr. Theo van Boven
Prof. Dr. Theo van Boven was born in 1934. He received law degrees from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands (Master of Law and Doctor of Law), and the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, USA (Master of Comparative Law). Between 2001 and 2004, he was Special Rapporteur on Torture of the UN Commission on Human Rights. He is Professor emeritus of International Law at the University of Maastricht.
Important dates:
1970 - 1975
Netherlands representative on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
1977 - 1982
Director of the Division of Human Rights of the United Nations
1975 - 1976
Member of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
1986 - 1991
Member of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
1990 - 1993
Special Rapporteur of the UN Sub-Commission on the Rights to Restitution, Compensation and Rehabilitation for Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
1994
Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
1998
Head of the Netherlands Delegation to the UN Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court
1992 - 1999
Member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
2001 - 2004
Special Rapporteur on Torture of the UN Commission on Human Rights
Honours:
Prof. Dr. van Boven was awarded the Louise Weiss Prize in Straßbourg in 1982. In 1985 he received the Right Livelihood Honorary Award in Stockholm. The International Service for Human Rights in Geneva awarded him 1996 their Human Rights Prize. Moreover Prof. Dr. van Boven was honoured with several Netherlands Royal Decorations. In 2001 he was awarded the Clara Wichman medal.
Publications (selection):
· International Protection of Religious Liberty (Assen, 1967) (doctoral thesis)
· General Course on Human Rights, Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law (1993) Vol. IV - 1
· Numerous articles on international human rights and humanitarian law, selected and edited in: Human Rights from Exclusion to Inclusion; Principles and Practice (eds. F. Coomans, C. Flinterman, F. Grünfeld, I. Westendorp, J. Willems), Kluwer Law International 2000
[June 2011]