Manfred Nowak

Manfred Nowak at Schloß Leopoldskron after Salzburg Seminar Session #443

Manfred Nowak (b. Bad Aussee, 26 June 1950) is an Austrian human rights lawyer.

Nowak is a Professor at the University of Vienna, where he is Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights.

Nowak was one of the judges of the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina between March 1996 and December 2003. He was also the vice president of the Chamber between December 1997 and December 1998.

Nowak is currently the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, and was one of the five authors of a United Nations report on the detention of captives at the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where serious torture was going on daily.

In 2005 Nowak visited China, claiming that torture remained "widespread" there. He also complained of Chinese officials interfering with his work.

In September 2006 he alleged that torture may be more of a problem in Iraq since the Iraq War than under Saddam Hussein's regime. Much of the torture, he argued, is carried out by security forces, militias and insurgents.

In January of 2009, Nowak appeared on Germany's ZDF television saying he believed the United States had a clear obligation to bring proceedings against President George W. Bush and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, because of torture inflicted on detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. Nowak said, "We have seen the documents that show that these interrogation methods were expressly ordered by Rumsfeld, but of course with the knowledge of the highest levels in the United States."

Nowak gives an account of his work as Special Rapporteur in the Journal of Human Rights Practice: http://jhrp.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/1/1/101

See also

• Enhanced interrogation techniques
• Extraordinary rendition
• War on Terror

External links

Commons: Manfred Nowak – Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien

de:Manfred Nowak