Olivier De Schutter

Olivier De Schutter, born on July 20, 1968, in Belgium, is a distinguished legal academic with a focus on economic and social rights. He held the position of United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food from 2008 to 2014, advocating for food security and sustainable agricultural policies. Currently, he serves as a professor of international human rights law, EU law, and legal theory at UCLouvain in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and teaches at the College of Europe and Sciences Po in Paris. Between 2008 and 2012, De Schutter was a visiting professor at Columbia University and has made significant contributions to the American University Washington College of Law's Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

In addition to his academic roles, De Schutter is the founding chair of the Belgian Advisory Council on Policy Coherence for Development and co-chairs the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), focusing on reforming global food systems. He was a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 2015 to 2020 and took on the role of UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on May 1, 2020.

De Schutter’s educational journey included studies in law at UCLouvain, Panthéon-Assas University, and Harvard University, culminating in a Ph.D. His notable works include "International Human Rights Law: Cases, Materials, Commentary," and he has written extensively on the intersections of globalization, trade, and human rights. His publications advocate for integrating labor rights and environmental considerations into trade policies and propose sustainable governance of vital resources.