Nils Muižnieks is a Latvian-American human rights activist and political scientist with more than 25 years of professional experience in intergovernmental organizations, government, academia, consulting and civil society. N. Muižnieks is a Regional Director for Europe at Amnesty International. He was Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights – Europe’ s top human rights official – from 2012 to 2018.
Nils Muižnieks obtained a PhD in political science at the University of California at Berkeley in1993. Prior to that, he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in politics at Princeton University summa cum laude and obtained a Master of Arts degree in political science from the same University in1988.
Prior to his appointment as Commissioner for Human Rights, he held prominent posts such as Programme Director at the Soros Foundation-Latvia, Director of the Advanced Social and Political Research Institute at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia in Riga from 2005 to 2012; Chairman of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance from 2010 to 2012; Minister for Social Integration of the Republic of Latvia responsible for social integration, anti-discrimination, minority rights, and civil society development from 2002 to 2004; and Director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies (now Latvian Centre for Human Rights) from 1994 to 2002.
As member (2005–2010) and Chair (2010–2012) of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), Muižnieks has represented ECRI in international political bodies, human rights mechanisms and international organizations such as the EU, OSCE, UN.
During his governmental appointment as Minister for Social Integration Affairs (2002–2004), he was responsible for social integration policy; the rights of persons belonging to national minorities; combating racial and ethnic discrimination; and civil society development. He was also responsible for legislation in anti-discrimination, social integration, the legal framework for NGOs and coordinated inter-ministerial working groups for the Latvian National Programme on Tolerance and policy framework for strengthening civil society. He advised local governments on integration policy and represented Latvia in the EU, OSCE, UN.
As Director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies (now Latvian Human Rights Centre), he strengthened the organizational focus on human rights education and promotion; monitoring of closed institutions; and the promotion of gender equality and rights of persons belonging to national minorities.
Muižnieks was also engaged in evaluation and training activities in the field of human rights. Among his main activities, he was the evaluator of a project on democracy building in Belarus; evaluator for the European Commission for the 7th Framework Research Programme on Citizenship and Democratic Ownership; and expert on conflict resolution and social cohesion for the Joint EU assessment mission to Georgia.
His work as Commissioner for Human Rights pivots on country and thematic work, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable groups, such as children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and Roma.
Further work concerned the human rights of migrants, including, asylum-seekers and refugees; women’s rights and gender equality; minority rights; and the importance of respecting human rights standards within the information society, in particular as regards media freedom, data protection, social networking and access to digital literacy. He also enhanced the co-operation with national human rights structures with the aim of fostering human rights-oriented policies at national level and addressing systemic shortcomings in member states.
