Christof Heyns

Christof Heyns
Christof Heyns, June 2015
Residence	Pretoria, South Africa
Nationality	South African
Alma mater	University of Pretoria
Years active	2010–present
Title	United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions

Christof Heyns is a Professor of Human Rights Law, Co-director of the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa at the University of Pretoria and United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.^[1] Christof Heyns is visiting professor at American University Washington College of Law's Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (2006-2012).

Education

Heyns holds the degrees MA LLB from the University of Pretoria, an LLM from Yale Law School and PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand. He is also an adjunct professor at the Washington College of Law of the American University and since 2005 a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College at Oxford University.^[2]

Former positions

• Director - Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria Faculty of Law
• Dean - University of Pretoria Faculty of Law
• Founding editor-in-chief - African Human Rights Law Reports
• Consultant to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (inter alia on the establishment of a regional human rights system in South East Asia), the African Union and the South African Human Rights Commission.^[3]

Awards

• Fulbright Fellowship to Yale Law School
• Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship to the Max Planck Institute for International and Comparative Public Law in Heidelberg, Germany
• University of Pretoria’s Chancellor’s Award for Teaching and Learning.^[4]

Lectures

Human Rights Law in Africa in the Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law

References

United Nations Special Rapporteurs
Countries and territories	Burundi (Fatsah Ouguergouz) Cambodia (Surya Prasad Subedi) Haiti (Michel Forst) Myanmar (Tomas Ojea Quintana) North Korea (Marzuki Darusman) Palestine (Makarim Wibisono) Somalia (Shamsul Bari) Sudan (Mohamed Chande Othman) Iran (Ahmed Shaheed)
Thematic mandates	Adequate Housing (Raquel Rolnik) Contemporary Forms of Slavery (Gulnara Shahinian) Cultural Rights (Farida Shaheed) Democratic and Equitable International Order (Alfred-Maurice de Zayas) Education (Kishore Singh) Effects of Economic Reform Policies and Foreign Debt on Human Rights (Cephas Lumina) Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions (Christof Heyns) Right to Food (Olivier De Schutter) Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association (Maina Kiai) Freedom of Opinion and Expression (David Kaye) Freedom of Religion or Belief (Heiner Bielefeldt) Human Rights Defenders (Margaret Sekaggya) Independence of Judges and Lawyers (Gabriela Carina Knaul de Albuquerque e Silva) Minority Issues (Rita Izsak) Physical and Mental Health (Anand Grover) Protecting Human Rights while Countering Terrorism (Ben Emmerson) Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (Githu Muigai) Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (Najat M’jid Maala) Torture (Juan E. Méndez) Trafficking in Persons (Joy Ngozi Ezeilo) Violence against Women (Rashida Manjoo) Human Rights and Access to Safe Drinking water and Sanitation (Catarina de Albuquerque) Human Rights and International Solidarity (Rudi Muhammad Rizki) Human Rights and the Illicit Movement of Toxic Waste (Calin Georgescu) Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises (John Ruggie) Human Rights of Indigenous People (James Anaya) Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (Chaloka Beyani) Human Rights of Migrants (François Crépeau) Human Rights and the Environment
United Nations Special Rapporteurs bear mandates from the United Nations Human Rights Council and may hold the titles Special Rapporteur, Independent Expert or Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and are also referred to simply as mandate-holders