UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
In June 2014, the President of the Human rights Council appointed Michel Forst as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
He has extensive experience in human rights matters as he has held a number of leading positions in that field, such as: General Director of Amnesty International – France and of the Ligue contre le cancer, Cabinet Director at UNESCO in the social and human sciences sector, and Secretary General of the CIMADE (an association in the field of migrants and refugees).
Between 2005 and 2016, Michel Forst was the Secretary General of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, which is the French national human rights institution (NHRI). He also has substantial knowledge of the situation of human rights defenders by being a founding member of two non-governmental organisations specialized in that field: the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and Front Line Defenders.
