Institute for Human Rights

 

The Institute for Human Rights was founded in 1987 and is part of the Faculty of Law, Department Public Law of the Catholic University of Leuven.

Members

The founder and chair professor of the Institute for Human Rights is Professor Paul Lemmens. Other members include Ms. Annelies Verstichel (guest professor), Mr. Michaël Merrigan (Ph.D. researcher), Mr. Paulo de Tarso Arantes (Ph.D. researcher) and Ms. Leen Stroobants (secretary).

Teaching

Professor Paul Lemmens, the Institute's director, is in charge of the courses on International Human Rights Law within the law progamme, International and European Human Rights Law (in English) and Rechten van de Mens (in Dutch), and he is the coordinator of the faculty's E.U. Human Rights Law - Clinic - (Brochure). Professor Lemmens is also the national coordinator for Belgium of the European Master Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation (E.MA), an interdisciplinary advanced degree in human rights organized by the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC)

Professor Annelies Verstichel is teaching the course "EU Human Rights Law and Policy".

Summer Course

Annually the Institute organizes a Summer Course on Human Rights, in cooperation with the Dutch School of Human Rights Research and the Northwestern University, Chicago. The summer course offers a unique opportunity to young professionals and researchers to broaden their knowledge and expertise in the field of international human rights. More information on the previous and upcoming editions can be found here.

Research and Activities

At the Institute for Human Rights, research is conducted on a variety of topics in domestic and International Human Rights Law. Specific attention is devoted to the jurisdictional protection of human rights, the mechanisms in the framework of the Council of Europe, the right to reparation, human rights and contracts, minority rights, the national protection of human rights and human rights and development. More information about ongoing and past research conducted at the Institute can be found here, or under the profiles of the various researchers.

The Institute also cooperates closely with other Flemish law faculties in the Interuniversitair Centrum Mensenrechten and it also coordinates a human rights chronicle on the case law of the European Court of Human Rights in a Flemish weekly legal journal, Rechtskundig Weekblad. More general information about the past activities at the Institute, can be found in the activities section.

Resources

Full text of lectures and short caselaw annotations (in Dutch) are provided for in the electronic library. This e-lib also contains links to international and regional human rights organizations and (quasi-) judicial bodies, as well as to non-governmental organizations. It also provides an overview of various human rights training courses and specialised programmes.