The protection of human rights lies at the very core of European integration. But considering the multitude of activities by the EU, the Council of Europe, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), it is often difficult to keep track. In-depth analysis by human rights experts is important for understanding changing paradigms and assessing emerging trends. For this purpose, this first volume of the new European Yearbook on Human Rights, which is edited jointly by representatives of four major European human rights institutions, brings together 20 contributions by renowned European human rights experts. The Yearbook's innovative structure allows for quick orientation and direct access to the many facets of Europe's culture of human rights. Opening with three articles on the topical issues of the year, the Yearbook contains extensive sections on the developments of the three most important European organizations charged with securing human rights: the EU, the Council of Europe, and the OSCE. A further chapter looks at the role of civil society and cross-cutting issues in human rights protection. Multi-disciplinary and eminently readable, European Yearbook on Human Rights 09 provides its readers with a comprehensive overview of the human rights situation in Europe in 2008.
About the Author: Wolfgang Benedek currently holds a position as Head of Institute of International Law and International Relations and as Director of the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy of the University of Graz. His main research interests are in the fields of human rights, human security and the regulation of the internet as well as international economic law where he has a focus on the WTO and Global Governance. He also has a specific interest in South-Eastern Europe and Africa. He has been involved in several research projects funded by national and European research foundations. He is the executive editor of the European Yearbook on Human Rights. He is teaching at all levels in international law and human rights law, international economic and development law, human rights in the Balkans, human security and the governance of the information society. He is long-time chair of the NGO World University Service (WUS) Austria.

Karl Wolfram holds a doctorate degree of law from Vienna (1964) and an LL.M. in international law from the University of Cambridge (1967). He became a lecturer of international law in 1981 and a full professor at the University of Salzburg in 1989; he retired in 2009 and is now professor emeritus. He also served as a guest professor at McGeorge School of Law, Sacramento (Calif., USA), at the universities of Innsbruck, Maribor, Frankfurt/Oder, and at the Summer School organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Polish and German Red Cross in Warsaw and Berlin, respectively. He has published and edited numerous articles and books in the field of international law, human rights, and humanitarian law. He is co-editor of the European Yearbook on Human Rights (Vienna) which started in 2009. Karl Wolfram has worked for the Austrian Human Rights Institute in Salzburg since 1990 and became its director in 2004. He is also a member of the Austrian Branch of the International Commission of Jurists, of the Council of the German Society of International Law and of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Besides that, he started his legal career in the Law Office of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in Geneva (1969-71).

Anja Mihr is Associate Professor at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), University of Utrecht, Netherlands. She teaches Human Rights, Transitional Justice and Democratization in International Relations. In 2008 she was Visiting Professor for Human Rights at Peking University Law School in China and worked for the Raoul Wallenberg Research Institute on Human Rights, Lund University. From 2006-2008 she was the European Program Director for the European Master Degree in Human Rights and Democratization at the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights in Venice (EIUC), Italy. She received her PhD in Political Sciences from the Free University in Berlin, Germany, in 2001. Mihr has worked for Amnesty International and the German Institute for Human Rights. Starting as a assistant professor with UNESCO Chair in Human Rights at the University of Magdeburg in 2002 in Germany, she was later a research director at the Humboldt University of Berlin carrying out the research project 'Teaching Human Rights in Europe' from 2003-2006. From 2002-2006 Anja Mihr also served on the board of directors of Amnesty International Germany.

Manfred Nowak received his PhD from the Law School of the University of Vienna in 1973 ad his LL.M from Columbia University (New York) in 1975. He was UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, UN expert on enforced disappearances and judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is/was visiting professor at the Danish Institute of Human Rights in Copenhagen, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights at Lund University, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization in Venice, the American University in Washington, D.C., Abo Akademie in Turku and the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (Director of SIM from 1987 to 1989). He is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Vienna University and Co-Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights in Vienna. He is author of more than 500 publications in the field of human rights, public and international law.