Manfred Nowak, former Special Rapporteur on torture (2004-2010)

Manfred Nowak (Austria) was Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment from 2004 to 2010.

Professor Manfred Nowak is the Independent Expert leading the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty. He carries out this function in close cooperation with the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC) in Venice, where he is Secretary General, and partner universities of the Global Campus of Human Rights, as well as with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights (BIM) in Vienna, which he founded and co-directs.

In addition, Manfred Nowak holds a Professorship of International Human Rights at the University of Vienna, where he is the Scientific Director of the Vienna Master of Arts (MA) in Human Rights.

Manfred Nowak was Professor of International Law and Human Rights at various universities, such as Utrecht, Lund, Stanford and the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and has published more than 600 articles and books, including various language editions of the CCPR-Commentary, a CAT-Commentary and an introduction to the International Human Rights Regime. His latest books look at human rights as an answer to growing economic inequality (published in 2016) and the limits of privatization from a human rights perspective (Human Rights or Global Capitalism, Pennsylvania Press, 2017).

In the past, Manfred Nowak has also carried out various expert functions for the United Nations, the Council of Europe (CoE), the European Union (EU) and other inter-governmental organizations. Most importantly, he served as United Nations Expert on Enforced Disappearances (1993 to 2006), as Vice-Chairperson of the Management Board of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Vienna (2012-2017), and as one of eight international judges in the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo (1996 to 2003).

View the full biography.

Note: OHCHR is not responsible for content on external websites.