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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 works since March 2011 as project manager of the newly to be established National Human Rights Institute of the Netherlands (College voor de Rechten van de Mens). She provides content advice to the project team that is currently setting up the new organisation on the basis of the mandate adopted by the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) last April. 

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 and Chair of the Dutch United Nations Association (Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties, NVVN).

Amsterdam Center for International Law

UNESCO

Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties

National Commission for UNESCO

National Human Rights Institute

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

• 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, “Assepoester vindt haar prins: de Onafhankelijke Deskundige Culturele Rechten”, NJCM Bulletin, Jaargang 34, No. 7, 2009, pp. 811-828.
• 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, “A Right to Cultural Identity in UNESCO”, in: F. Francioni and M. Scheinin (eds.), Cultural Human Rights, Brill Publishers, 2008, [ISBN: 978 90 04 16249], pp. 317-340
• Yvonne Donders and Vladimir Volodin (eds.) Human Rights in Education, Science and Culture: Legal Developments and Challenges, UNESCO/Ashgate, Paris, December 2007. [ UNESCO ISBN 978-92-3-104073-3; ASHGATE  ISBN 978-0-7546-7312-5 (Hbk); ASHGATE  ISBN 978-0-7546-7313-2 (Pbk)]
• 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 Donders, “The Protection of Cultural Rights in Europe: None of the EU’s Business?”, in: Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, Vol. 10, number 2, 2003, pp. 117-148.
• 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.

Teaching

Yvonne Dondersteaches "International Human Rights Law" and "Human Rights Capita Selecta"(Masters level) and "Grondrechten" (Bachelor 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

Grondrechten

Other relevant activities

• Project leader National Human Rights Institution (College voor de Rechten van de Mens)
• Member of the Netherlands National Commission for UNESCO
• Chair of the Netherlands United Nations Association (Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties, NVVN)
• Member of the Scientific Committee of the annual World Forum on Human Rights, Nantes, France
• Member of the U40 GrouponCultural Diversity, think-tank on cultural diversity and the implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005).

Nederlandse Vereniging voor de Verenigde Naties

World Forum on Human Rights

National Commission for UNESCO

National Human Rights Institution