Olivier de Frouville

Olivier de Frouville is Professor of Public Law at the University of Paris–Panthéon-Assas and Director of the Paris Human Rights Center (CRDH). He also co-directs the Master’s programme in Human Rights and International Justice. He is the author or editor of more than twenty books and over eighty articles across various fields of international law, with a particular focus on the philosophy and theory of public international law—especially the development of a “democratic theory of international law”—as well as international criminal law and international human rights law.

Alongside his academic work, he has served in multiple roles within the United Nations human rights system for three decades. From 1995 to 2006, he served as a chargé de mission for the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), where he notably represented the organization throughout the drafting process of the United Nations Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. In 2008, he was appointed as an independent expert of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (2008–2014), serving as its Chair-Rapporteur from 2012 to 2013. He was subsequently elected to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (2015–2018). Since 2019, he has been a member of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, which he chaired from 2023 to 2025.