Antoine Buyse is Director of NIAS. He combines this position with a part-time appointment as Professor of Human Rights in a Multidisciplinary Perspective at Utrecht University. His own research focuses on the human rights of civil society, human rights defenders, and the shrinking of civic space.

“Bringing together different disciplines leads to a fruitful cross-pollination of ideas. For a number of years now, NIAS has been firmly committed to attracting truly diverse groups of fellows from a wide range of academic cultures. The presence of artists, writers, and journalists adds yet another layer of exciting serendipity to this.”

Antoine Buyse studied history and international and European law at Leiden University, where he also defended his PhD on post-conflict-housing restitution. He has been teaching human rights at Utrecht University for two decades at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) of which he was the director between 2014 and 2026.

His publications include edited volumes on Cultures, Citizenship and Human Rights (Routledge 2019, with Buikema and Robben), Transitional Jurisprudence and the ECHR. Justice, Politics, and Rights (Cambridge University Press (2011, with Hamilton), and Margins of Conflict. The ECHR and Transitions to and from Armed Conflict (Intersentia 2010), as well numerous journal articles and advisory reports, including for the Council of Europe, the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions, and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

He has a keen interest to make academic knowledge accessible. To do so, he founded  and still is one of the editors of the ECHR Blog, dedicated to the European Convention on Human Rights. He has also co-developed a Massive Open Online Course on human rights for open societies and has regularly made public appearances on human rights, including in a theatre show and a television programme for children.

Next to his academic work, he is a member of the human rights commission of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV) and a board member of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation. He was also previously a member of the Young Academy and of the Social Sciences Council, both at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). For many years, he served on the Executive Committee of the global Association of Human Rights Institutes of which he has also been the vice-chair.