Olivier de Frouville is Professor of Public Law at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University and Director of the Centre de Recherche sur les Droits de l’Homme et le Droit Humanitaire / Paris Center for Human Rights (C.R.D.H.). He was a member of the Institut Universitaire de France from 2012 to 2018, during which time he conducted research on a “democratic theory of international law.” He currently teaches Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, and International Criminal Law at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University.
Alongside his academic career, Olivier de Frouville has worked for thirty years within the United Nations system on human rights issues in various capacities. Between 2008 and 2026, he held several mandates as an independent expert with the United Nations: member of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (2008–2014), serving as its Chair-Rapporteur from April 2012 to October 2013; in that capacity, he was also a member of the United Nations Special Procedures Coordination Committee (2013–2014); member of the Human Rights Committee (2015–2018); and member of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (2019–2026, serving two terms), which he chaired from 2023 to 2025.
As a « chargé de mission » for the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Olivier de Frouville notably represented the organization in the negotiations leading to the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (1995–1998) and the International Convention for the protection of all persons against enforced Disappearance (2003–2006).
From 2009 to 2020, he served as the expert designated by France under the OSCE Human Dimension Mechanism.
At the national level, he was a member of the French National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) from 2009 to 2015.
From August 2011 to August 2012, Olivier de Frouville was a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) and at Clare Hall, a college of the University of Cambridge, of which he became a Life Member in 2013.
His research interests include Public International Law, the Theory of International Law, International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, and International Criminal Law. His scholarly work is characterized by a constant dialogue between theory and practice, ranging from theories of legal cosmopolitanism to the practical “cosmopolitan projects” represented, for example, by the status of international civil society within international organizations or the creation of a United Nations Human Rights Court. His research on the present and future of international law is accompanied by a broader reflection on the ethics of legal practice.