1. Martin Scheinin was selected for this position after serving for eight years as member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the independent expert body monitoring states' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Martin Scheinin is an expert of international law, human rights and constitutional law.
From 2010 to 2014 Scheinin was President of the International Association of Constitutional Law.
Martin Scheinin was born on 4 November 1954 in Helsinki, Finland to an accomplished upper-middle-class family.
Martin Scheinin's father was dentistry professor and university rector Arje Scheinin.
Martin Scheinin was active in the 1970s student radicalism and involved in the Turun Akateeminen Sosialistiseura In early 1980s he worked as lawyer of the parliamentary group of the Finnish People's Democratic League, briefly engaging with the Eurocommunist fraction of the deeply divided Communist Party of Finland.
Martin Scheinin has explained his conversion from a Euro-marxist to a liberal as learning by the mid-1980s that "liberty is a higher value than equality".
Martin Scheinin left party politics in the mid-1980s and has since focused on his legal and academic work.
Martin Scheinin was active in several non-governmental organisations, including Ihmisoikeusliitto and Suomen Demokraattiset Lakimiehet DEMLA.
Martin Scheinin has defended Sami people's rights against mining and forestry activities, including in Angeli, Finland since the 1990s.
Martin Scheinin received his doctorate in law from the University of Helsinki in 1991.
Martin Scheinin was Professor of law for fifteen years in Finland, first as Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Helsinki and then as Professor of Constitutional and International Law and Director of the Institute for Human Rights at Abo Akademi University.
Martin Scheinin moved to Florence in 2008 to take up office as Professor of Public International Law at the European University Institute.
Martin Scheinin was the Coordinator of the FP7-research project SURVEILLE, and earlier the Work Package leader in the research project DETECTER under the European Union Framework 7 Security Programme.
Martin Scheinin was the coordinator of the research strand GLOTHRO within the EUI Global Governance Programme.
Martin Scheinin has taught courses on human rights or counter-terrorism in many parts of the world, including at the University of Melbourne, University of Pretoria, the American University Washington College of Law and the University of Toronto, and for professional target groups such as judges, lawyers or prosecutors in Egypt, Latvia, Turkey and the Russian Federation.
Martin Scheinin has worked with the UN on human rights issues since 1997, first as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and from 2005 until 2011 as Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism.
Martin Scheinin's reports have covered themes such as definitions of terrorism, the right to fair trial in terrorism cases, the impact of counter-terrorism measures on economic, social and cultural rights, the right to privacy in the age of counter-terrorism, the role of intelligence agencies and their oversight in counter-terrorism, and the identification of best practice in combating terrorism in full compliance with human rights.
Martin Scheinin was heard as expert witness by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of US Congress concerning human rights in the North Caucasus, by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the Mapuche case and by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in the consideration of the Investigatory Powers Bill.
In 2015, when ten years had passed since his membership on the UN Human Rights Committee, Martin Scheinin accepted again to serve as pro bono counsel for the indigenous Sami people.
Martin Scheinin is involved in ongoing litigation concerning indigenous peoples' rights, including in cases related to mining and climate change.
From 2018 to 2023, Martin Scheinin served as a member of the Scientific Committee of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, its main quality assurance body.