European Yearbook on Human Rights 10

In Europe, from the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty to policy changes in countering terrorism, 2009 was a year rich in legal and political developments that directly implicate human rights. Among the growing intensity of human rights practice and scholarship, even experienced scholars find it difficult to keep track. Recognizing the necessity to identify and critically assess key developments in the human rights field in Europe and the world, this second volume of the European Yearbook on Human Rights brings together 24 contributions by renowned human rights experts who provide a much-needed overview. Edited jointly by representatives of four major European human rights institutions, the Yearbook offers an innovative structure which allows for quick orientation and direct access to the many facets of Europe's culture of human rights protection. The Yearbook contains extensive sections on developments in the field of the three main organizations charged with securing human rights in Europe: the EU, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. It also looks at the role of civil society in human rights protection and at multidisciplinary topics. Holistic in its approach, rich in information, and highly useful in its analyses, European Yearbook on Human Rights 10 provides a comprehensive overview of Europe's human rights situation in 2009.

Wolfgang Benedek currently holds a position as Head of Institute of International Law and International Relations and as Director of the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy of the University of Graz. His main research interests are in the fields of human rights, human security and the regulation of the internet as well as international economic law where he has a focus on the WTO and Global Governance. He also has a specific interest in South-Eastern Europe and Africa. He has been involved in several research projects funded by national and European research foundations. He is the executive editor of the European Yearbook on Human Rights. He is teaching at all levels in international law and human rights law, international economic and development law, human rights in the Balkans, human security and the governance of the information society. He is long-time chair of the NGO World University Service (WUS) Austria.

The EIUC Secretary General since 2009 is Florence Benoît-Rohmer of the University of Strasbourg. She has served as Vice-President of EIUC from 2002 till 2008, and as French national director of the European Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation (E.MA) since its inception in 1997. Florence Benoît-Rohmer holds a PhD in Public Law. She was President of the Université Robert Schuman (URS), Strasbourg, from 2003 to 2008. She is Professor at the Law Faculty in Strasbourg, Director of the Master programme in Human Rights at the University of Strasbourg. She has been acting as human rights expert for the Council of Europe and EU, was member of the European Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights set up by the European Commission, and is currently president of the Scientific Committee of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the EU. She is also member of the scientific committees of several international journals specialised in human rights, and in particular minority rights.

Karl Wolfram holds a doctorate degree of law from Vienna (1964) and an LL.M. in international law from the University of Cambridge (1967). He became a lecturer of international law in 1981 and a full professor at the University of Salzburg in 1989; he retired in 2009 and is now professor emeritus. He also served as a guest professor at McGeorge School of Law, Sacramento (Calif., USA), at the universities of Innsbruck, Maribor, Frankfurt/Oder, and at the Summer School organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Polish and German Red Cross in Warsaw and Berlin, respectively. He has published and edited numerous articles and books in the field of international law, human rights, and humanitarian law. He is co-editor of the European Yearbook on Human Rights (Vienna) which started in 2009. Karl Wolfram has worked for the Austrian Human Rights Institute in Salzburg since 1990 and became its director in 2004. He is also a member of the Austrian Branch of the International Commission of Jurists, of the Council of the German Society of International Law and of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Besides that, he started his legal career in the Law Office of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in Geneva (1969-71). 

Manfred Nowak received his PhD from the Law School of the University of Vienna in 1973 ad his LL.M from Columbia University (New York) in 1975. He was UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, UN expert on enforced disappearances and judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is/was visiting professor at the Danish Institute of Human Rights in Copenhagen, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights at Lund University, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization in Venice, the American University in Washington, D.C., Abo Akademie in Turku and the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (Director of SIM from 1987 to 1989). He is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Vienna University and Co-Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights in Vienna. He is author of more than 500 publications in the field of human rights, public and international law.