LLB Leeds, LLM Col, LLM NY, PhD Essex
Professor, Chair Human Rights Centre

Professor Sir Nigel Rodley KBE obtained an LLB from the University of Leeds in 1963, an LLM from Columbia University in 1965, an LLM from New York University in 1970 and a PhD from the University of Essex in 1992. He started as an Assistant Professor of Law at Dalhousie University, Canada. In 1990, he was appointed as Reader in Law at the University of Essex and Professor of Law in 1994. He was Dean of Law from 1992 to 1995. From 1993 to 2001 he served as Special Rapporteur on Torture of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Since 2001 he has been a Member of the UN Human Rights Committee, established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

In 1998 he was knighted in the Queen's New Year's Honours list for services to Human Rights and International Law and in 2000 he received an honorary LLD from Dalhousie University. He was a joint recipient of the American Society of International Law's 2005 Goler T. Butcher Medal for distinguished work in human rights. In 2008 he was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians. He has written and worked on the problem of impunity for human rights crimes such as torture, a perspective that informs his concerns relating to transitional justice.