Human Rights and Biomedicine

Graduation at the Faculty of Law of the University of Rosario (Argentina). Doctoral degrees in law from the Universities of Buenos Aires (1991) and Paris-Est Créteil (1994), both on topics related to the ethical and legal aspects of medically assisted reproduction. Adjunct Professor of Civil Law at the University of Buenos Aires (1994-1998). Visiting Scholar at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Laval University, Quebec, Canada (1999). Humboldt Foundation Fellow at the Department of Medical Ethics of the University of Göttingen, Germany (2001-2002) and DAAD-Visiting Professor of Bioethics at the same University (2003).

Postdoc Fellow at the International Centre for Ethics in Sciences, University of Tübingen, Germany (2004-2005). Member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (1998-2005). President of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare (ESPMH) (2014-2016). Researcher for the EU Project "INTEGRITY" on the teaching of scientific integrity in Europe (2019-2021). Member of the UNESCO Expert Group on the Ethics of Neurotechnology (2024). 'Privatdozent' of biomedical law and bioethics at the Faculty of Law, and Research Associate and Coordinator of the PhD Program Biomedical Ethics and Law (Medical Track) at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine of the University of Zurich.

Anne Forus works at the Norwegian Directorate of Health as a Special Adviser in biomedicine. Her fields of expertise cover ethical, legal, medical and scientific issues related to the use of genetic testing and genetic information, assisted reproduction technologies, prenatal diagnosis and pre-implantation genetic testing. 

Anne has been a delegate to CDBIO since 2003. She was Vice Chair in 2012 and Chair in 2013 and 2014.

Anne was a member of the UNESCO International Committee on Bioethics (IBC) from 2016-2023.

She has a PhD in molecular biology and background in cancer research. 

Luuk Ex is a senior researcher at the Rathenau Instituut. He works in a team that focuses on the public responsibility of technology companies. Over the past two years, the team has examined how emerging technologies such as generative AI, quantum technology, and immersive technology have an impact on values such as privacy, autonomy, and health.

Leading a multidisciplinary group of researchers with backgrounds in law, philosophy, health, and medicine, Luuk worked on a report about the opportunities and risks of neurotechnology for public values: https://www.rathenau.nl/en/health/neurotechnology.
 

Anna Austin qualified as a Solicitor (Law Society of Ireland) in 1991. Having worked for 6 years with A&L Goodbody in Dublin, she joined the European Commission for Human rights in 1994 and, subsequently, the European Court of Human Rights in 1998. She worked as a Head of Division in the Registry of the Court for 10 years. She was appointed to act as the Court’s Deputy Jurisconsult in 2015 and as the Court’s Jurisconsult in 2020, a position she holds to date. 

She has also been seconded from those institutions on a number of occasions. She was the Deputy Ombudsperson for Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997. She headed the Office of the Investigating Judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia 2008-2009. Anna Austin was the human rights advisor of the Secretariat of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 2014-2015. In 2013-2015, she acted as the Legal Advisor of the International Advisory Panel on Ukraine (Maidan).

Mark Bale has previously led UK Government policy related to research, healthcare and ethics with a focus on engaging with public, patients and diverse stakeholders to shape policy and delivery. Until March 2022 he was policy advisor and Programme Director for the 100,000 Genomes Project and seconded to Genomics England. He also acted as Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Health providing policy leadership in regenerative medicine, genome editing, precision medicine and rare diseases. Mark led the UK’s G7 Presidency work on global pathogen surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mark is Chair of the Ethics Advisory Board for Our Future Health. He chaired Ireland’s Genetics and Genomics Strategy Steering Group and acted as Interim Director of Ireland’s National Genetics and Genomics Office leading implementation of enhanced genetic and genomic healthcare. 

He has served on several international bodies, including the EU, OECD, WHO, UNESCO, and Council of Europe. He continues to represent the UK at the Council of Europe Steering Committee on Human Rights and Biomedicine focussed on genomics, horizon scanning and youth engagement.

Martina Malcheva is a Senior Legal Expert at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria (2020-present). Contributor to the Munich Convention on AI, Data and Human Rights. Bulgarian representative at the subregional and national consultations of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology. Contributor to the Neurotechnology Initiative by the INTERPOL Innovation Centre. Researching neurotechnology and fundamental rights as a PhD student (2023-present). Author of multiple research papers on AI, subconscious and liability. 

Marius Emberland is professor of international and constitutional law at BI Norwegian Business School, and a partner at Berngaard law firm, Oslo. Holding a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, and a cand. jur. degree from the University of Oslo, prior to him joining the BI Norwegian Business School faculty Marius was the Norwegian Government's agent before the European Court of Human Rights and UN treaty bodies for more than ten years. He has been legal adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, chief analyst at the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, and associate professor at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo. He currently chairs a government appointed committee tasked to assess the efficacy of the Norwegian Foreign Intelligence Services Act 2020, which includes a new regime for the interception of telecommunication data.

Born on 7 March 1964, in Yerevan, Armenia

• Diploma in Law, Yerevan State University, Law Department, 1981-1986
• PhD, Institute of State and Law of Academy of Science of the USSR, Moscow, 1986-1989
• Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Senior Professor, Yerevan State University, Law Department, Division of Constitutional and International Law, 1989-2002
• Doctor of Law, Academy of Public Administration of Russian Federation, Moscow, 1996-1997
• Member of the Commission on Constitutional reforms, 1997-2001
• Legal Advisor, Constitutional Court of Armenia, 1997-2005
• Representative of the President of the Republic of Armenia on Constitutional reforms, 2001-2005
• Rector, Public Administration Academy of Armenia, 2002-2006
• Deputy Representative of Armenia, European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), 2002-2011
• Member of the Council of Justice of Armenia, 2004-2005
• President of the European Law Association of Armenia, 2004-2011
• Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman) of Armenia, Human Rights Defender’s Institution of Armenia, 2006-2011
• Member of the Board of European Ombudsman Institute (2008-2011), external member (2011-2015)
• Graduated of the Human Rights Law Centre, School of Law, University of Nottingham, 2007
• Member of the Armenian Bar Association of North America, Los Angeles, 2007-2011
• Honorary Member of the French Association of Armenian Advocates and Lawyers (AFAJA), Paris, 2008-2011
• Regional Representative, Regional Office for Central Asia of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2011-2014
• Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2014-2015
• Member (external) of the Commission of Constitutional amendments of Ukraine, 2015
• Judge of the European Court of Human Rights from 17 September 2015 to 27 April 2025.

Timo Istace holds a Doctorate in Law and a Master’s in Philosophy and currently conducts research at the Faculty of Law at the University of Antwerp. He is also connected to the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and the Antwerp Health Law and Ethics Chair. His work focuses on human rights law, medical law, philosophy of law, and bioethics, with a particular emphasis on the challenges posed by emerging technologies across these domains. He specializes in the human rights and ethical implications of neurotechnology.

Full professor of philosophy of law in Lumsa University in Rome; former member of bioethics committees at national and international level (IBC UNESCO); former delegate of Italy ad the Council of Europe; member ot the Italian Commission for ethics and integrity in research.

Dr Vassilis P. Tzevelekos is an academic and practitioner specialising in public international law and human rights, with particular expertise in the European Convention on Human Rights. He has published widely in these fields and is currently Reader in Law at the University of Liverpool. Dr Tzevelekos is a qualified lawyer with the Athens’ Bar Association. He serves as a member (and former Vice-Chairperson) of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, where he has also chaired the working group on neurotechnology and human rights, and as a member of the Council of Europe’s European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT). He is also the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of The ECHR Law Review.

Monika Hermanns is a former Justice of the German Federal Constitutional Court (Member of the Second Senate from 2010 to 2023). She was Research assistant at the Institute of European Law, Saarland University and acted as Head of the Legal and Coordination Department at the State Chancellery of Saarland. As a judge she served in lower courts and at the German Federal Court of Justice. From 2016 to 2023 she was Substitute Member of the Venice Commission.

Professor of Constitutional Law and Biolaw, Universidad Pontificia Comillas de Madrid

Vice-Chair of the Spanish Association for Health Law

Ordinary Academic of the Pontifical Academy for Life

Ethical revisor of the Ethical Code of the Government and Parliament of Andorra

Ethical Advisor of the Spanish Office for Scientific Advisory (ONAC)

Chair of the Spanish Bioethics Committe (2018-2022) and Vice-Chair (2013-2018)

Member of the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) UNESCO (2013-2021)

Vice-Rector and Register of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (2021-2024)

Member of the Group of Experts for the Spanish Strategy for the vaccination against Covid-19, Ministry of Health

Judge Pinto de Albuquerque was the Vice-president of Section IV and President of the Committee on the Rules of the Court. As Full Professor at the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Lisbon, he has published, inter alia, fifteen books in different languages and more than fifty journal articles.
Since his appointment as a Judge in Strasbourg, Professor Pinto de Albuquerque has authored more than 150 opinions that have significantly contributed to the development of international human rights law. The Judge’s decisions are regularly cited by academic scholars and practitioners in human rights law, public international law, criminal law, migration law, and refugee law.

Mrs Laurence LWOFF holds a MSc. in reproductive physiology from the University of Paris VI – Jussieu (France). She then obtained her degree in agronomy from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (France) in 1986 and received her PhD in molecular biology in 1989.

She joined the Council of Europe in 1991, where she was entrusted with the responsibilities of the Secretariat of the Conventions concerning the use of animals in agriculture and science, in the Directorate of Legal Affairs. In 1999, her responsibilities were extended to biotechnology. She was the Secretary of the International Conference of the Council of Europe on Ethical Issues Arising from the Applications of Biotechnology (Oviedo, Spain, May 1999). In 2002, she joined the Bioethics Department where she has been responsible in particular for the activities on human genetics and on the protection of the human embryo and the foetus. She was the Secretary of the Group in charge of the elaboration of the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, concerning Genetic Testing for Health Purposes.

She is currently the Head of Health Division and Secretary of the Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO), intergovernmental committee in charge of the activities on the protection of human rights in the biomedical field, at the Council of Europe.

Milena Costas Trascasas holds a PhD in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid and works as human rights consultant. Between 2019 and 2025, she was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council's Advisory Committee, and acted as rapporteur of a study on the impact of neurotechnologies on human rights. The study, presented in September 2024, has been instrumental to launch within the Human Rights Council a process to develop guidelines on this issue.  

Ass. Prof. JUDr. Tomáš Doležal, Ph.D., LL.M., is a leading legal scholar in medical and civil law. He is Head of the Department of Civil Law and Head of the Research Unit for Medical Law and Bioethics at the Institute of State and Law, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and lecturer at the Institute of Medical Law and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine. He is a Bureau member of the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO) and Head of the Czech Unit of UNESCO International Network in Bioethics. He collaborates with the Association of General Practitioners, especially during public consultations on medical legislation.

He is the author of many publications, including the monographs The Doctor-Patient Relationship in Private Law, Protection of patients' rights, and Causation the Civil Law.

Krista OINONEN is the Director of the Unit for Human Rights Courts and Conventions at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Agent of the Government before the European Court of Human Rights. She is the Chairperson of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) and its Bureau and has chaired drafting groups under the CDDH. She has served in the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations (UN) Office in Geneva in 2008-2011 and worked at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2004-2007. She has received her Master's degree in Law from the University of Lapland in 1998 and joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 1999. With over 25 years of experience in international human rights law, she has developed extensive expertise in advancing human rights through multilateral and legal frameworks.

Alessandra Pierucci is a lawyer and has been working for several years at the Italian Data Protection Authority, in particular on EU-related and international matters. 

She has been the Chair of the Council of Europe Consultative Committee of Convention 108 for three mandates of which she is still an active member.

She worked at the “Media and Information Society Division” of the Council of Europe where she dealt with data protection and freedom of expression in respect of new media and Information Society.

At European Union level, she contributes regularly to the activity of the European Data Protection Board, in particular by coordinating the work of subgroup on data protection in the financial sector. 

She participated in several projects on data protection and gave legal advice in the field. 

As part of her research activity, she has published several papers concerning fundamental rights and data protection issues on juridical journals and books.