About The Minerva Center for Human Rights

The Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Faculty of Law is the preeminent academic center in Israel devoted to human rights research and education. Engaging government, civil society and local and international academia, the Center serves as the most important hub in Israel for practical and theoretical discourse on current local and global human rights dilemmas.

The Center provides outstanding Hebrew University students with unequaled academic and practical tools necessary for them to fulfill key roles in Israeli society as leaders in public service, as educators and researchers, and as pioneers of social change.

The Minerva Center for Human Rights places great emphasis on developing platforms for collaborations between Israeli students, scholars and practitioners and their international counterparts, in order to generate awareness of, and discourse with, comparative academic reflection, historical experience and cultural perspectives. Partners in recent Minerva projects have included Freie Universität Berlin and Göttingen University in Germany, George Washington University and Georgetown University in the United States, Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, University of Fribourg in Switzerland, McGill University in Canada, European University Institute, National University of Rwanda and others.

Each year the Center brings to Jerusalem dozens of leading international human rights scholars and practitioners to lecture at conferences and symposia or teach intensive courses. In addition, in recent years the Center has initiated projects in which Hebrew University students have participated in conferences, courses and study tours in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Rwanda, Canada and the United States.

The Center's activities include:

  • A fully-funded multidisciplinary international PhD program in human rights with Freie Universität Berlin – the first-ever PhD program in human rights in Israel, and the first joint German-Israeli PhD program (in any field) ever funded by the German Research Foundation.
  • The only Postdoctoral Fellowships in Israel devoted to human rights research.
  • The only research grants offered to all Israeli scholars engaged in human rights-related research, on a competitive basis, through an annual national call for proposals.
  • The Israel Law Review, a leading international journal of human rights, international and public law (published by Cambridge University Press).
  • Numerous international conferences, symposia, guest lectures and workshops each year, on a wide range of current local and global human rights issues.
  • Academic courses, summer schools, internships and international study trips for top Hebrew University students.
  • An ongoing, closed, structured consultation mechanism between government and civil society professionals on pressing domestic human rights dilemmas, under the Center's leadership and auspices.

Staff

Directors 

Dr. Einat Albin, Academic Director 
Mr. Danny Evron, Executive Director 
 

Administrative Staff 

Ms. Anat Mishali, Executive Assistant 
Ms. Edna Sustiel, Budget Coordinator 
Ms. Dari Nof, Projects Coordinator 
 

Research Fellows

Prof. Yaël Ronen
 

Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Irit Ballas
Dr. Or Avi-Guy

 

Israel Law Review 

Prof. Yuval Shany, Editor in Chief 
Prof. Malcolm Shaw, Editor in Chief 
Prof. Yaël Ronen, Academic Editor
 

Human Rights Fellows Program 

Prof. Daphna Golan, Program Director 
Ms. Marina Farah, Program Assistant
 

EIDHR Project - Internalizing Human Rights Treaty Obligations

Ms. Moran Avital, Government / Civil Society Component Coordinator
Ms. Rula Hamdan Atamneh, SDG Component Coordinator
Adv. Dana Yaffe, Shadow Report Component Coordinator
 

“Multiversitas” – Peacebuilding in Jerusalem through Academic Project-Based Learning 

Ms. Rula Hamdan Atamneh, Project Coordinator 
Dr. Or Avi-Guy, Project Coordinator 
Dr. Inas Deeb, PBL Coordinator 
 

Fried-Gal Transitional Justice Program

Prof. Tomer Broude, Co-Director
Prof. Yuval Shany, Co-Director
Prof. Ruti Teitel, Co-Director
Dr. Or Avi-Guy, Academic Coordinator
 

Advisory Boards and Academic Committees

Academic Committee, Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

Prof. Yuval Shany (chair), Faculty of Law 
Prof. Ilan Benshalom, Faculty of Law
Prof. Badi Hasisi, Institute of Criminology and Faculty of Law 
Dr. Renana Keydar, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Humanities
Dr. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Prof. Hagar Salamon, Faculty of Humanities
Prof. Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

 

Academic Committee (Beirat), Minerva Foundation / Max Planck Society 

Prof. Anne Peters (chair), Director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg  
Prof. Nili Cohen, Tel-Aviv University 
Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Bar-Ilan University  
Prof. Eckart Klein, University of Potsdam 
Prof. David Kretzmer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem  
Prof. Andreas Paulus, University of Gottingen, Judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany 
 

International Advisory Board 

Stuart Eizenstat, Covington & Burlap LLP, Washington, D.C. 
Kenneth Feinberg, Feinberg Law Offices, Washington, D.C. 
Felice Gaer, Director, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, American Jewish Committee, New York 
Michael D. Hausfeld, Hausfeld LLP, Washington, D.C. 
William J. Kilberg, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, Washington, D.C. 
E. Randol Schoenberg, Burris, Schoenberg & Walden LLP, Los Angeles 
Philip Siller, BroadRiver Asset Management LP, Toronto 
 

International Advisory Board, Israel Law Review 

Justice Rosalie Abella, Supreme Court of Canada 
Prof. Dapo Akande, University of Oxford 
Prof. Aharon Barak, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, former President of the Supreme Court of Israel 
Judge Daphne Barak-Erez, Supreme Court of Israel 
Prof. Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago 
Prof. Oren Gross, University of Minnesota 
Prof. Michael Karayanni, Hebrew University of Jerusalem 
Prof. Kieran McEvoy, Queen's University Belfast 
Prof. Barak Medina, Hebrew University of Jerusalem 
Justice Andreas Paulus, Federal Constitutional Court of Germany 
Prof. Anne Peters, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg 
Prof. Monica Pinto, University of Buenos Aires 
Prof. Kerry Rittich, University of Toronto 
Prof. Naomi Roht-Arriaza, University of California Hastings 
Prof. Maurice Sunkin, University of Essex 
Prof. Adam Tomkins, University of Glasgow 
Prof. Armin von Bogdandy, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg 
 

Advisory Board, Fried-Gal Transitional Justice Program

Adv. Eitan Diamond, Tel Aviv University
Adv. Sami Ersheid, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Dr. Pierre Hazan, Geneva
Dr. Sigall Horovitz, Vienna
Adv. Hassan Jabareen, Haifa
Prof. Michael Karayanni, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Prof. David Kretzmer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Adv. Prof. Kenneth Mann, Tel Aviv
Prof. Barak Medina, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
 

Academic Partners

Academic partners over the last years have included:

  • Tel Aviv University
  • Freie Universität Berlin
  • Universität Zürich
  • University of Göttingen
  • George Washington University
  • University of Fribourg
  • University of Ulster
  • Queen's University Belfast
  • University of Potsdam
  • McGill University
  • European University Institute
  • Georgetown University
  • College of Management Academic Studies
  • Duke University
  • University of Denver
  • Berg Institute Madrid
  • National University of Rwanda

Partners at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem include:

  • Faculty of Law
  • Center for the Study of Multiculturalism and Diversity
  • Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace
  • Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations
  • Halbert Centre for Canadian Studies