Since 1 January 2010, Prof. Dr. iur. Beate Rudolf is the Director of the German Institute for Human Rights. Prior to that, she was a junior professor for public law and equality law at the faculty of law of Freie Universität Berlin and director of the research project "Public International Law Standards for Governance in Weak and Failing States" within the Research Center "Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood". Her research focuses on human rights and legal principles on state structures under public international law, European law and German constitutional law as well as from a comparative law perspective. She carried out her activities in research and teaching in these areas at the universities of Bonn, Dusseldorf, Tulane Law School, New Orleans and Freie Universität Berlin. She gained practical experience in human rights work during an internship at the Directorate for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, by representing applicants before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and as an active member of the German Women Lawyers Association and the European Women Lawyers Assocation, of which she was a Vice-President until end of 2011. She also belongs to the editorial committee of the German-language version of decisions of the ECHR. Her numerous publications (in German, English and French) in the area of human rights range from conceptual questions of specific rights, gender equality and non-discrimination to problems of implementation and improving the UN human rights system.

Michael Windfuhr is a political scientist, educated at the University of Heidelberg. Since 2011, he has been the Deputy Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, the national human rights institution of Germany. For the five years prior to this, he served as Human Rights Director of Bread for the World, the development organisation of the Protestant church of Germany. Between 1988 and 2006 he worked with FIAN-International (FoodFirst Information and Action Network), an international human rights organisation that focuses on the realisation of the right to adequate food. Initially he coordinated FIAN's Latin American work concentrating on land conflicts and agrarian reform. He represented FIAN at the United Nations Human Rights system from 1992 onward. In the last 10 years, he has contributed to the effort to set standards for the right to food. He was actively involved in the elaboration of the “Voluntary Guidelines on the progressive implementation of the right to adequate food” adopted by the FAO Council in November 2004. He became Secretary General of FIAN in 2005.
He brought his experience in international relations to the Institute of Political Science at the University of Heidelberg. From 1996 to 2000 he was also a part-time assistant to Prof. Klaus von Beyme. In addition Michael Windfuhr lectured at the Institute for more than ten years. His main fields of publication and teaching are: human rights policies, international relations theory, international economic and development policies. He has published extensively, particularly on economic, social and cultural rights as well as on trade and agricultural policies.
Lastest book publications: Windfuhr, Michael (ed.): Beyond the Nation State. Human Rights in Times of Globalisation, Stockholm, 2005. Bals, Christoph / Harmeling, Sven, Windfuhr, Michael: Climate change, Food Security and the Right to adequate Food, Study written for Brot für die Welt, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe und Germanwatch, November 2008.

Dr. Valentin Aichele, LL.M. (University of Adelaide) is with the German Institute for Human Rights since 2005. He is an expert in the field of economic, social and cultural human rights. Since May 2009, Valentin Aichele is Head of the independent monitoring body to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Political Scientist. Responsible for international security policies and the United Nations human rights system. He is also member of the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. Since 1988, Dr. Heinz teaches at the Free University of Berlin as a senior lecturer for political science. Among his many publications are: "Causes and impact of human rights violations in the Third World" (1986), "New democracies and the military in Latin America. The experiences in Argentina and Brazil (1983-1999)" (2001) and "Fight against Terrorism and human rights protection in Europe. Exemplary questions" (2007).

Dr. Claudia Lohrenscheit is senior research assistant at the German Institute for Human Rights since 2003 and head of unit human rights education. She is educational scientist and intercultural pedagogue and finished her Ph.D. on human rights education in South Africa in 2003. From 1996-2002 she was co-leader of the Centre for Educational Studies in the North and South at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. Here she was the co-ordinator of exchange- and in-service teacher education programmes for teachers of disadvantaged learners and communities in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa and Lower Saxony, Germany. She lived and worked in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, South Africa for a while. Her current focus of work and research lies in: children's rights, women's rights, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexual rights (LGBTI) as well as human rights education.

Dr. Inga Winkler has been working at the Institute since May 2009. She is a Legal Adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, Catarina de Albuquerque, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. Inga also lectures on economic, social and cultural rights at the Faculty of Law of the University of Düsseldorf, Germany. Prior to joining the team of the Special Rapporteur, she worked as a consultant for the Water Governance Programme of the United Nations Development Programme and the Right to Water Programme of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions. Inga holds a German law degree, having passed her State examination in 2005, and a doctorate in public international law. Her thesis focuses on the human right to water and its implications for water allocation. In 2008, Inga was a visiting researcher at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa for a few months.

List of Publications Inga Winkler (Word, 19 KB, not barrier free)

Anna Würth is head of the unit Development Cooperation at the German Institute for Human Rights. She earned her PhD in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and has taught at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Richmond in Virginia (USA). She has worked with Human Rights Watch, and has more than 15 years of experience as an independent consultant in development. Anna Würth has published widely on contemporary Islamic Law, on human rights and human rights policy.