European Yearbook on Human Rights 2025

Celebrate with the European Yearbook on Human Rights 2025 the 75th anniversary of the European Convention of Human Rights, the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, and the 75th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration!

Explore with us the profound and lasting impact of the Council of Europe, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the human rights instruments adopted and mechanism established under their umbrella while critically examining the current challenges they face. With this critical resource we reaffirm the importance of academic work for advancing and defending human rights and freedoms essential to our shared humanity.

Join us in honoring these legacies and committing to a future where justice, security, and dignity are upheld for all!

Author Biography

Lisa Heschl is senior scientist at the European Training and Research Centre on Human Rights and Democracy at the University of Graz (Uni-ETC). She received her PH.D. in law from the University of Graz and holds a European Master Degree in Human Rights and Democratization (E.MA).

Philip Czech (Dr. iur., Dr. phil) has been Senior Researcher at the Austrian Institute for Human Rights since 2002. He is the editor of the Newsletter Menschenrechte, a periodical reporting in German on the current case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

Karin Lukas is Professor at the Department of Legal Studies, Central European University (CEU). She has acted as consultant for various national and international organisations and companies, and was appointed as a member to the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe in 2011 (till 2022).

Manfred Nowak is Professor of International Law and Human Rights and Scientific Director of the Vienna Master of Arts in Applied Human Rights at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, as well as Secretary General of the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice. He has acted as an independent expert for various institutions including the UN, the EU and the Council of Europe. He was director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights at the University of Utrecht, founder and co-director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights at the University of Vienna.

Gerd Oberleitner is UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Human Security at the Faculty of Law, University of Graz, and Director of the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy at the University of Graz. He has been a lecturer at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights of the London School of Economics and Political Science and Visiting Professor at the European Inter-University Centre Venice, the Université du Quebéc à Montréal, the Universities of Ljubljana and Bochum and Rutgers University.

Hannes Tretter was an Austrian lawyer and human rights expert. He was Professor of Fundamental and Human Rights at the University of Vienna, Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institut of Human Rights, which he cofounded with Felix Ermacora and Manfred Nowak in 1992, and co-founder of the Vienna Forum for Democracy and Human Rights. He acted as expert with the OSCE, the CoE and the EU (e.g. FRA) and many others. Hannes Tretter passed away on 7 March 2025, at the age of 73.