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Join King's College London for an evening with Ilze Brands Kehris, the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in New York.
Marking 75 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Ilze Brands Kehris will discuss the challenges to peace and security the world faces and the role of human rights in preventing and responding to those challenges and conflict.
About the speaker
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Ilze Brands Kehris of Latvia as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in New York.
Ilze Brands Kehris is currently an independent expert member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, (2017-2020) the treaty body monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. She is also a senior research fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, at Lund University, in Sweden, since 2016.
Previously, she has held several prominent leadership positions in national and regional level human rights organisations, including as Member and Chairperson of the Management Board of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (2007-2012); Director of the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (2011-2014); first Vice-President and Member of the Advisory Committee on the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (2006-2012); and Member of the Management Board and Vice-Chairperson of the Executive Board of the EU Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (2004-2007). She also served as Director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights from 2002 to 2011.
Ilze Brands Kehris combines extensive expertise in political science, conflict prevention and human rights, with a specialisation in minority rights, and long-standing experience in intergovernmental fora and with civil society organisations.