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CHAIRMAN OF HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION APPOINTS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON TORTURE
24 November 2004
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24 November 2004
United Nations Commission on Human Rights Chairman Mike Smith has appointed Manfred Nowak of Austria as Special Rapporteur on torture. The appointment was made on 23 November in consultation with representatives of the different regional groups in the Commission.
Prof. Nowak is Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights at the University of Vienna and Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM). He has served as Judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
Prof. Nowak was a member of the Austrian delegation to the Commission on Human Rights for many years before being appointed in 1993 as expert member of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances. During this term he also served as United Nations expert on missing persons in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001 he was appointed to study legal issues relating to the drafting of a binding instrument on enforced disappearances.
Prof. Nowak is a board member of various international and Austrian non-governmental organizations and was appointed in 2000 chairperson of a human rights commission at the Austrian Ministry of Interior with the task of monitoring the police. In 1994, he was awarded a UNESCO prize for the teaching of human rights. He has published more than 350 books and articles in the fields of human rights, public law and politics. He has been a member of the International Commission of Jurists since 1995.
Special Rapporteurs and other "mandate-holders" of the Commission are independent from any government and serve in their individual capacity. The Commission first decided to appoint a special rapporteur to examine questions relevant to torture in 1985. The mandate covers all countries, irrespective of whether a State has ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The mandate comprises such activities as: gathering information from governmental and non-governmental sources; making urgent appeals to States to clarify the situation with regard to individuals reported to be at risk of torture and transmitting to them communications on alleged cases of torture; undertaking, with the consent of the Government concerned, fact-finding country visits; and submitting annual reports on his activities to the Commission and the General Assembly.
Prof. Nowak will take up his mandate as Special Rapporteur on 1 December.
United Nations Commission on Human Rights Chairman Mike Smith has appointed Manfred Nowak of Austria as Special Rapporteur on torture. The appointment was made on 23 November in consultation with representatives of the different regional groups in the Commission.
Prof. Nowak is Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights at the University of Vienna and Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM). He has served as Judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
Prof. Nowak was a member of the Austrian delegation to the Commission on Human Rights for many years before being appointed in 1993 as expert member of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances. During this term he also served as United Nations expert on missing persons in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001 he was appointed to study legal issues relating to the drafting of a binding instrument on enforced disappearances.
Prof. Nowak is a board member of various international and Austrian non-governmental organizations and was appointed in 2000 chairperson of a human rights commission at the Austrian Ministry of Interior with the task of monitoring the police. In 1994, he was awarded a UNESCO prize for the teaching of human rights. He has published more than 350 books and articles in the fields of human rights, public law and politics. He has been a member of the International Commission of Jurists since 1995.
Special Rapporteurs and other "mandate-holders" of the Commission are independent from any government and serve in their individual capacity. The Commission first decided to appoint a special rapporteur to examine questions relevant to torture in 1985. The mandate covers all countries, irrespective of whether a State has ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The mandate comprises such activities as: gathering information from governmental and non-governmental sources; making urgent appeals to States to clarify the situation with regard to individuals reported to be at risk of torture and transmitting to them communications on alleged cases of torture; undertaking, with the consent of the Government concerned, fact-finding country visits; and submitting annual reports on his activities to the Commission and the General Assembly.
Prof. Nowak will take up his mandate as Special Rapporteur on 1 December.
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