Kjaerum most recently was the director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Vienna. During his seven years at the agency, he is credited for having brought FRA into the foreground of the European human rights landscape.

“Globally we’ve come a long way in the field of human rights in the last 20 years, but as we all know, there are still severe human rights violations on all continents,” says Kjaerum. “For this reason the role for the Raoul Wallenberg Institute is very relevant and important. As the world changes, the issues change, so the institute also needs to adjust its approach to meet the demands of those whose human rights are being violated.”

Kjaerum was the founding director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights. During his 17 years of leadership there, he developed it into a large internationally recognized institution.

Kjaerum was a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) from 2002 to 2008. He was also a member of the EU network of independent experts who monitor compliance with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights from 2002 to 2006.

He says, “With a strong team both in Lund, Sweden, and at our field offices around the world, and together with key partners, I look forward to addressing important human rights issues: rule of law, access to justice, discrimination, and corruption undermining fundamental rights, and many more.”

“We are pleased to welcome Morten to the Institute and are confident that with his wide experience he will contribute to further enhance the Institute’s contributions to development and promotion of international human rights law”, says Lennart Svensäter, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of RWI.

About the Raoul Wallenberg Institute:

The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law is an independent academic institution, founded in 1984 at the Law Faculty at Lund University in Sweden.  In legal terms, the Institute is a charitable trust under Swedish private law, governed by a Board of Trustees.

The mission of the Institute is to promote universal respect for human rights and humanitarian law, by means of research, academic education, dissemination of information and institutional development programmes.

Contact:
Gabriel Stein, RWI Communications officer
gabriel [dot] stein [at] rwi [dot] lu [dot] se
+46 46 222 12 59