We are delighted to announce that Professor Steven Ratner will serve as the new director for the Donia Human Rights Center (DHRC) for a three year term, effective July 1, 2020.
Professor Ratner is the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. His teaching and research focus on public international law and a range of disputes involving states, non-state armed groups, individuals, and corporations, including business and human rights, regulation of foreign investment, territorial conflicts, counter-terrorism strategies, the law of armed conflict, and accountability for human rights violations.
He began his legal career as an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. State Department. In 1998–1999, he was appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to a three-person group of experts to consider options for bringing the Khmer Rouge to justice; and in 2010–2011, he was a member of the UN's three-person Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, which advised Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on human rights violations related to the end of the Sri Lankan civil war. He also has served in the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva and at the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in The Hague. Professor Ratner holds a JD from Yale, an MA (diplôme) from the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Études Internationales (Geneva), and an AB from Princeton.
Please join us in welcoming Steve and thanking him for his willingness to serve in this important role!
