Walter Kälin (born 1951 in Zurich) is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

humanitarian, constitutional lawyer,

international human rights law International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law is primarily made up of treaties, ag ...

yer, activist, and advocate. He is also known as a legal scholar and a renowned professor. He has been a leader in changing Swiss laws and international laws for humanitarian purposes and he has been published extensively on issues of human rights law, the law of internally displaced persons, refugee law, and Swiss constitutional law.

Early life and education

Walter Kälin received his

Doctor of Law A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

from the University of Bern and his

LL.M. A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is a postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in another subject. In many jurisdi ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

Career

Kälin has been a professor of international and constitutional law at the University of Bern since 1985. He is also a former Dean of the Faculty and Head of the Legal Department.
Oxford University Press He has acted as a consultant for numerous agencies and organizations including the Swiss development agency, SDC, UNHCR, UNHCHR, UNDP, and others on matters of decentralization, human rights, and refugee law. He was notably counselling and representing asylum-seekers as a member of the Swiss section of Amnesty International. Schweizerische Bundesverfassung 1995

In 1991–1992, Kälin served as the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Kuwait under Iraqi Occupation.
United Nations High Commission for Human Rights He was also a member of the Swiss government's Steering Committee for "the preparation of constitutional reform" and he was chairman for the preparation of the reform of the judiciary (1995–1996). Since 2011, Kälin has been a member of the

Human Rights Committee The United Nations Human Rights Committee is a treaty body composed of 18 experts, established by a 1966 human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The Committee meets for three four-week sessions per ye ...

of the United Nations. Since 2004, Kälin has served as the Representative of the United Nations' Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. He served as a board member of th
International Service for Human Rights
in Geneva from 2010 to 2013. He also served as the Envoy of the Chairmanship of th
Nansen Initiative
between 2011 and 2016, which lead to the creation of th
Platform on Disaster Displacement
Since spring 2017, Kälin has been serving on the board of directors of the

Norwegian Refugee Council The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC; ) is a humanitarian, non-governmental organisation that protects the rights of people affected by displacement. This includes refugees and internally displaced persons who are forced to flee their homes as a res ...

. In 2019,

United Nations Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

appointed him to the Expert Advisory Group of the High Level-Panel on Internal Displacement under the leadership of

Federica Mogherini Federica Mogherini (; born 16 June 1973) is an Italian politician who served as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. A member of the Democratic ...

and

Donald Kaberuka Donald P. Kaberuka (born 5 October 1951) is a Rwandan economist and was the president of the African Development Bank from September 2005 until September 2015. Early life and education Kaberuka was born in Byumba, Rwanda. He studied at the Uni ...

.High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, press release of 3 December 2019.

Published work

* Kälin, Walter; Müller, Lars; Wyttenbach, Judith (2004). ''The Face of Human Rights''. Italy: Lars Müller Publications. * Kälin, Walter; Kunzli, Jorg (July 2009). ''The Law of International Human Rights Protection''. USA: Oxford University Press. * Kälin, Walter; Epiney, Astrid; Heim, Lukas; Felder, Andreas (January 2003). ''Zum öffentlichen Recht : Völkerrecht''. Switzerland: Stämpfli Verlag.

Lectures

''Climate Change and Population Movements''
in th

* ttp://legal.un.org/avl/faculty/Kaelin.html ''Climate Change and Population Movements''in th
Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law

References

Walter Kälin Professional Biography on the United Nations OHCHR Website

External links