Research Centre Human Rights

The inter-disciplinary Research Centre “Human Rights” was established as a subunit of the Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna in May 2014.

The research centre succeeds the Research Platform “Human Rights in the European Context” after a six‐year period of successful interdisciplinary research in the field of human rights.

Core group

The leader of the Research Centre Manfred Nowak (Department of European, International and Comparative Law, and Co-Director of Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights) will closely work together with the deputy-leader Christina Binder (Department of European, International and Comparative Law)

The Research Centre assembles 15 academics of 10 departments of 5 faculties of the University of Vienna with the purpose of strengthening the interdisciplinary research on the topic of human rights.

• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Psychology
• Faculty of Social Sciences
• Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies
• Faculty of Catholic Theology

The Research Centre is based on following pillars:

• Centre of competence: Original, innovative, interdisciplinary research identifying the most important challenges of human rights developments – a starting point of analysis to fill existing implementation gaps on the basis of the "Human Rights Based Approach".
• Networking: Co‐ordination of ongoing research and teaching by establishing intra‐and interuniversity networks in the human rights area, drawing on the expertise of the involved faculties; development of international networks for human rights research through strategic cooperation and partnerships with selected human rights research institutions.
• Research location Vienna: The establishment of an institutionalised structure at the university enables the creation of a strong profile and thus strengthens human rights as a field of academic research in Vienna and beyond.
• Cooperation: With other university‐based or non‐university research institutions – in particular with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, non‐governmental organizations, the media, Austrian federal authorities, the City of Vienna as well as European and international
  organizations and institutions, such as the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,the OSCE Expert on Human Trafficking or the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe.
• Visibility: Advancing education and extending the visibility of human rights research within and outside the University of Vienna, amongst others human rights lectures, panel discussions, seminars and conferences.