Prof Dr Theodoor van Boven (T.C.)

Since December 2001 till December 2004, Theo van Boven (1934) was UN Special Rapporteur against Torture. He has served as Director of Human Rights of the United Nations and has been a member of the United Nations Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and of the Committee on the Elimination of Racism and Discrimination. He was also the first Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He was the Head of the Netherlands delegation to the United Nations Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (Rome, 1998). He is member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture. He was President of the Netherlands Association of International Law; Member of the International Commission of Jurists; and a member of the Board of the International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism. His education background and honours include: Master of Comparative Law (Dallas, Texas 1960), Doctor of Law (Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1967), Doctor Honoris Causa (Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, 1982, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, 1988, University of New York at Buffalo, 1991), Recipient of the Louise Weiss Prize (Strasbourg, 1982), and of the Right Livelihood Honorary Award (Stockholm, 1985). He was also a visiting professor at Harvard Law School (1987) and at the New York University Law School (1990). He has written extensively on international human rights and humanitarian law.