Ilze Brands Kehris

Biography

 Ilze has both practical and theoretical human rights experience gained from work spanning intergovernmental organizations, civil society and academic research.  She has held several prominent leadership positions in national and regional level human rights organizations, including Chairperson of the Management Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.  As the Director of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities’ office she gained experience in addressing the interface of minority rights and diplomacy for the purpose of conflict prevention. In January 2017 she will take up her mandate as a member of the UN Human Rights Committee. Thematically, her own work has focused on civil and political rights, minority rights, anti-discrimination and equality, as well as the right to effective participation in economic, social and cultural life. Most recently, she has engaged on conflict prevention and human rights, including minority rights and in this area combines practical experience from the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities and related academic research at Columbia University. Herself a political scientist, she is committed to a genuine inter-disciplinary approach to human rights, firmly grounded in both legal analysis and social science methodologies.

Research Interest

 Human Rights, Social Sciences