Martin Scheinin

Martin Scheinin (born 4 November 1954) is an international law scholar who served as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism in 2005–2011.

Scheinin was born on 4 November 1954 in Helsinki, Finland to an accomplished upper-middle-class family.

His father was dentistry professor and university rector Arje Scheinin.

Although Scheinin received a Lutheran upbringing, his father's Jewish ancestry made him read books on the Holocaust and thus he became interested in human rights.

In his youth he was an activist and involved in leftist politics.

He was active in the 1970s student radicalism and involved in the Turun Akateeminen Sosialistiseura (Academic Socialist Association of Turku) In early 1980s he worked as lawyer of the parliamentary group of the Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL), briefly also engaging with the Eurocommunist fraction of the deeply divided Communist Party of Finland.

In an interview Scheinin claims that his interest in human rights partly stemmed from his background as a peace activist and partly from insights concerning the world of politics that he learned while working as a lawyer in the parliament building.

He has explained his conversion from a Euro-marxist to a liberal as learning by the mid-1980s that "liberty is a higher value than equality".

He left party politics in the mid-1980s and has since focused on his legal and academic work.

He was active in several non-governmental organisations, including Ihmisoikeusliitto (Finnish League for Human Rights) and Suomen Demokraattiset Lakimiehet DEMLA (Democratic Lawyers of Finland).

Scheinin received his law degrees at the Universities of Turku (LL.M. 1982, LL.L. 1987) and Helsinki (J.D. 1991).

Scheinin's doctoral dissertation was titled "Ihmisoikeudet Suomen oikeudessa" (Human Rights in the Legal System of Finland) and had a transformative role in strengthening the country's commitment to international human rights and their constitutional protection.

Scheinin has defended Sami people's rights against mining and forestry activities, including in Angeli, Finland since the 1990s.

He states that indigenous people's rights are close to his heart.

In an interview, Scheinin considers his greatest achievement his contributions to the suspension of capital punishment in Russia.

Scheinin received his doctorate in law from the University of Helsinki in 1991.

Scheinin was Professor of law for fifteen years in Finland, first as Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Helsinki (1993–1998) and then as Professor of Constitutional and International Law and Director of the Institute for Human Rights at Åbo Akademi University (1998–2008).

His professional experience also includes working for the Parliament of Finland, the Finnish Ministry of Justice and three governmental commissions that drafted amendments to the Finnish Constitution, including the 1995 fundamental rights reform.

He has taught courses on human rights or counter-terrorism in many parts of the world, including at the University of Melbourne, University of Pretoria, the American University Washington College of Law and the University of Toronto, and for professional target groups such as judges, lawyers or prosecutors in Egypt, Latvia, Turkey and the Russian Federation.

He was selected for this position after serving for eight years (1997–2004) as member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the independent expert body monitoring states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

While on the committee, he was known as a defendant of the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples and opponent of capital punishment, as well as the drafter of the committee's General Comment No. 29 on states of emergency.

Today he is British Academy Global Professor at the University of Oxford and retains status as part-time professor of International Law and Human Rights at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

He is an expert of international law, human rights and constitutional law.

Scheinin has worked with the UN on human rights issues since 1997, first as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and from 2005 until 2011 as Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism.

In April 2005, the UN Commission on Human Rights appointed "a special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism".

He moved to Florence in 2008 to take up office as Professor of Public International Law at the European University Institute.

At the European University Institute, Scheinin's areas of research and supervision have included human rights law, privacy and surveillance, rights of indigenous peoples, and anti-terrorism legislation.

This was initially a three-year appointment, to end in 2008, but was later extended by three more years, to end in 2011.

As Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Scheinin reported annually both to the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights Council.

His reports have covered themes such as definitions of terrorism, the right to fair trial in terrorism cases, the impact of counter-terrorism measures on economic, social and cultural rights, the right to privacy in the age of counter-terrorism, the role of intelligence agencies and their oversight in counter-terrorism, and the identification of best practice in combating terrorism in full compliance with human rights.

Some of the reports have been commended by governments, such as those related to discriminatory profiling or the right to privacy in the context of counter-terrorism.

On some other occasions, certain governments have been highly critical about the reports, such as Scheinin's analysis of the [gender] impact of counter-terrorism measures and his proposals of a total reform of the terrorist listing by the United Nations Security Council.

From 2010 to 2014 Scheinin was President of the International Association of Constitutional Law.

In 2010–2014 Scheinin was President of the International Association of Constitutional Law.

Scheinin was awarded Amnesty International Finland's Candle Prize in 2011 for his long-term work for human rights, and more specifically for his work as a UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism in 2005–2011.

In 2016–2018 he served as the Dean of Graduate Studies in addition to his duties as professor.

He was the Coordinator of the FP7-research project SURVEILLE (Surveillance: Ethical Issues, Legal Limitations, and Efficiency), and earlier the Work Package leader in the research project DETECTER (Detection Technologies, Terrorism, Ethics, and Human Rights) under the European Union Framework 7 Security Programme.

He was also the coordinator of the research strand GLOTHRO (Beyond Territoriality: Globalisation and Transnational Human Rights Obligations) within the EUI Global Governance Programme.

In 2018-2023 he was a member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency.

From 2020 to 2024, he is British Academy Global Professor at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford, while maintaining the status of part-time professor at the European University Institute.