Formerly United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
Olivier De Schutter (LL.M, Harvard University ; Ph.D., University of Louvain (UCL)), was the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food from 2008 to 2014. He currently co-chairs IPES-FOOD, and will serve as a member of the Scientific Committee of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union until 2018.
Prof. De Schutter is Professor of Law at the Université catholique de Louvain. He holds a LL.M. from Harvard University, a diploma cum laude from the International Institute of Human Rights (Strasbourg) and a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Louvain. He has taught European Union law, international and european human rights law and legal theory at numerous universities, including Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne and the Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs.
Mr. De Schutter was appointed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food by the Human Rights Council in March 2008. In that capacity, he launched official missions in Benin, China, Cameroon, Canada, South Africa, Madagascar, Guatemala, Brazil, Nicaragua and Mexico. An expert on social and economic rights and on economic globalization and human rights, he served between 2004 and 2008 as a Secretary General of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
He is a current member of the Scientific Committee of the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union and has been elected a Member of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for the period of 2015 to 2018.
Prof. De Schutter has published widely on economic and social rights and the relationship between human rights and development. He is the founder and Editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Human Rights / Journal européen des droits de l’homme. In 2013, he was awarded the prestigious Francqui Prize for his contribution to international and European human rights law and to the theory of governance.