Profile

Prof. Dr. Yvonne Donders is Professor International Human Rights and Cultural Diversity and Executive Director of the Amsterdam Center for International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam. She has graduated from Utrecht University in international relations and has done her PhD at the Law Faculty of Maastricht University on cultural human rights and the right to cultural identity. Her research interests include public international law; international human rights law, in particular economic, social and cultural rights and human rights and cultural diversity. She teaches courses on international law and international human rights law and gives lectures on cultural rights and cultural diversity.

Yvonne Donders worked from March 2011 to October 2012 as project manager (1 day per week detachment) at the National Human Rights Institute of the Netherlands (College voor de Rechten van de Mens), assisting the transformation from Equal Treatment Commission to NHRI . Previously Yvonne Donders worked as Programme Specialist on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Division of Human Rights and Struggle against Discrimination of UNESCO's Secretariat in Paris. 

Yvonne Donders is currently member of the National Commission for UNESCO, member of the Human Rights Committee of the Advisory Council on International Affairs, member of Editorial Board of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, member of the Board of the Dutch International Law Association (KNVIR), member of the European Expert Network on Culture (EENC), Chair of the Advisory Board of the Dutch Shelter City project, and Chair of the Dutch United Nations Association (Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties, NVVN).

• Amsterdam Center for International Law

• Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties

• National Commission for UNESCO

• National Human Rights Institute

• European Expert Network on Culture

Research

Research interests include general public international law; international human rights law, in particular the advancement of economic, social and cultural rights; and human rights and cultural diversity.

Key Publications (see full list under 'publications")

Yvonne Donders, “Cultural Pluralism in International Human Rights Law: The Role of Reservations”, in: A. Vrdoljak (ed.), The Cultural Dimension of Human Rights, Collected Courses Volume, European University Institute, Florence, OUP, 2013, p. 205-239 [ISBN 978-0-19-964212-0] Last draft version:  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2230276

Yvonne Donders, "Mesurer le droit de participer à la vie culturelle : le développement des indicateurs", in : J. Bouchard, S. Gandolfi et P. Meyer-Bisch (eds.), Les droits de l’homme: une grammaire du développement, l’Harmattan, Paris, 2013, pp. 229-246 [ISBN : 978-2-343-02221-5]

Yvonne Donders, “Cultural Rights in the Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions: Included or Ignored?”, in: Toshiyuki Kono and Steven Van Uytsel (eds), The UNESCO Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions – A Tale of Fragmentation of international Law?, Intersentia,International Law Series, Volume 9, [ISBN 978-94-000-0003-2] August 2012, pp. 165-182.

Yvonne Donders, "Old Cultures Never Die? Cultural Genocide in International Law", in: I. Boerefijn et al (eds.), Human Rights: Pre-Conflict, In Conflict, and Post-Conflict, Liber Americorum Professsor Bastiaan de Gaay Fortman, Intersentia, March 2012, pp. 278-304 [ISBN 978-1-78068-054-5]

Yvonne Donders, "The Right to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific Progress: in Search of State Obligations in relation to Health", in: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, Volume 14, Issue 4 (2011), Page 371-381, Springer Publishers, Open Access: J. No. 11019, Article No. 9327, (via DOI: 10.1007/s11019-011-9327-y and http://www.springerlink.com/content/xk66t30m93122853/fulltext.pdf )

Yvonne Donders, "Do Cultural Diversity and Human Rights make a Good Match?, in: International Social Science Journal 199, 2010, UNESCO, Blackwell Publishing, pp. 15-35. SSRN: http://ssrn.com/author=1417815

Yvonne Donders, "Culture and Human Rights", in: David Forsythe (ed.), Encyclopedia on Human Rights, Oxford University Press, July 2009 [ ISBN: 978-01-9533-4029], pp. 441-450 .

Yvonne Donders, "The History of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions", in: H. Schneider and P. v.d. Bossche (eds.), Protection of Cultural Diversity from an International and European Perspective, Intersentia, Antwerp , November 2008, [ISBN 978-90-5095-864-6 ] pp. 1-30.

Yvonne Donders, “Study on the legal framework of the right to take part in cultural life”, in: Y. Donders and V. Volodin (eds.) Human Rights in Education, Science and Culture: Legal Developments and Challenges, UNESCO/Ashgate, December 2007, pp. 231-271.

Yvonne M. Donders, Towards a Right to Cultural Identity?, School of Human Rights Research Series No. 15, Intersentia/Hart, Antwerp/Oxford/ New York , 2002, 400 pp.

Yvonne Donders teaches "International Human Rights Law" and "Human Rights Capita Selecta" (Masters level) and "Fundamentele Rechten" (Bachelors level) at the UvA. She has given guest lectures at the University of Tilburg and the Rooseveld Academy in Middelburg and taught a masters course on cultural rights at the University of Paris II (2008).

• International Human Rights Law

• Human Rights-Capita Selecta

• Fundamentele Rechten

- Member of the Human Rights Committee of the Advisory Council on International Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (AIV) (since June 2013)

- Member of the Editorial Board of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights (since May 2013)

- Member of the Board of the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law (since November 2012)

- Chair of the Advisory Board of the project “Shelter City” (since August 2012)

- Member of the European Expert Network on Culture EENC (since January 2011)

- Member of the Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO (since September 2009)

- Member of the U40 group on the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (since July 2008)

- Member of the Scientific Committee of the World Forum on Human Rights, Nantes (since July 2007)

- Member of the LERU (League of European Research Universities) working group on Academic Freedom (since March 2010)

- President of the Dutch United Nations Association (since May 2007)

• Nationale UNESCO Commissie

• Adviesraad Internationale Vraagstukken

• Netherlands Quartely of Human Rights

• European Expert Network on Culture

• Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties (UNA)

• Nederlandse Vereniging Verenigde Naties
  Voorzitter
• Nationale UNESCO Commissie
  Lid