Professor Alena Douhan, Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures

Professor Alena Douhan (Belarus), the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, took up her functions on 25 March 2020. She is a professor of International Law, the Director of the Peace Research Center at the Belarusian State University (Belarus) and Associated member of the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict at Ruhr University Bochum.

Professor Douhan received her PhD in International Law and European Law in 2005 and obtained Dr. hab. in International Law and European Law in 2015 (both in Belarus). She participated in several academic exchange programmes, including Asser College Europe (2003), Hague Academy of International Law (2005), Administration of Justice (2008), Max Plank Institute of International and comparative law (2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015), DAAD exchange professor (2019-2020).

She was a fellow professor at the Belarusian National Technical University (2001-2003), lecturer, associate professor and professor at the Belarusian State University since 2004 and the vice-rector of the International University MITSO in Belarus (2016-2019).

Professor Douhan worked at the UN office in Minsk (2001-2005) and at the Economic Court of the Commonwealth of Independent States (2006-2008) in Belarus.

Her teaching and research interests are in the fields of international law, sanctions and human rights law, international security law, law of international organizations, international dispute settlement, and international environmental law.

Professor Douhan is an author of more than 150 books and articles on various aspects of international law. She has more than 40 publications (including four books) related to human rights covering, inter alia, issues of targeted and comprehensive sanctions, unilateral coercive measures, freedom of opinion, privacy, counter terrorism, right to development, right to education,UN sanctions architecture created under the UNSecurity Council, application of EU restrictive measures, cyber security, and current challenges and developments of labour rights in the recent ILO documents.

Since 2013, Professor Douhan has been serving as an expert panellist at a variety of panel discussions on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures and the enjoyment of human rights organized by the Human Rights Council and other actors.

Professor Douhan is also a member of a number of academic and expert organizations, President of Belarusian branch of International Law Association.