The
 International
 Struggle
 against 
Torture:
 Experiences
 of
 the
 former
 UN 
Special
 Rapporteur 
on 
Torture

Manfred
 Nowak
 is
 Professor
 of 
International 
Law
 and
 Human
 Rights
 at the
 University
 of
 Vienna, 
Director
 of 
the 
Ludwig
 Boltzmann
 Institute 
of Human
 Rights
 (BIM)
 in
 Vienna,
 and
 Vice‐President
 of
 the
 Austrian UNESCO‐Commission.
 He
 has
 held
 many
 highly
 distinguished appointments:
 he
 was
 a
 Judge
 at
 the
 Human
 Rights
 Chamber
 of Bosnia‐Herzegovina
 (1996–2003)
 and
 Vice‐President
 of
 the
 Chamber (1997‐1998),
 a
 UN
 Expert
 on
 Disappearances
 (2001‐2006),
 the
 UN Special
 Rapporteur
 on
 Torture
 (2004‐2010),
 and
 a
 Member
 of
 the Coordinating
 Committee
 of
 UN
 Special
 Procedures
 (2009–2010). During
 his
 mandate
 as
 UN
 Special
 Rapporteur
 on
 Torture,
 Professor Nowak
 conducted
 numerous 
fact‐finding 
missions,
 including
 hundreds of
 face‐to‐face
 interviews
 with
 persons
 deprived
 of
 their
 liberty.
 He
 investigated
 the
 abuse
 of detainees
 at
 secret
 places
 of
 detention 
(“black
sites”)
and
 at
 the 
US 
detention 
centre 
at 
Guantanamo Bay.
 He
 is
 author
 of
 more
 than
 500
 publications
 in
 the
 fields
 of
 constitutional,
 administrative
 and international 
human 
rights
 law.
 These
 include
 seminal 
commentaries 
on
 the
 UN 
Convention
 Against Torture 
(2008) 
and 
the 
International 
Covenant 
on 
Civil 
and
 Political
 Rights
 (2nd 
ed.
2005).

Event followed by a reception.