Nils Muižnieks

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Nils Muižnieks (2012)

Nils Raimonds Muižnieks (born January 31, 1964 in Los Angeles , California ) is a Latvian scientist and politician. He was on 24 January 2012. 3. Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg elected, succeeding Thomas Hammarberg . He held this office from April 1, 2012 until April 1, 2018.

Education and career

Nils Muižnieks studied political science at Princeton and Berkeley Universities . His doctoral thesis in 1993 was entitled The Baltic popular movements and the disintegration of the Soviet Union . From 1994 to 2002 he was the director of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies.

Muižnieks held the post of Latvian Minister of Integration from 2002 to 2004 and was thus a member of the government. In 2004 he was a candidate for the Christian democratic liberal - conservative Latvijas Pirmā Partija on the electoral list of the European Parliament .

The politician is also director of the Advanced Social and Political Research Institute (ASPRI) at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Latvia in Riga .

Political positions

Surveillance in Europe

In an article published in the New York Times on October 27, 2015 under the title "Europe Is Spying on You", Muižnieks said that the social development after the revelations by Edward Snowden was not about more public scrutiny but more surveillance . Muižnieks describes the argument put forward by numerous governments that freedoms must be “sacrificed” in favor of security as “threadbare”. He accused governments switching from targeted surveillance against individual suspects to mass surveillance of accepting the undermining of democracy.

family

Muižnieks' parents Ansis and Ingrid left Latvia as refugees in 1944, then spent 6 years in the American zone of occupation in western Germany and moved to the USA in 1950 . In 1992 Nils Muižnieks married the piano teacher and singer Andra Fedder . He has two daughters.

Fonts

  • Latvian-Russian relations. Domestic and international dimensions. Riga 2006, ISBN 9984-802-10-8 .
  • Uncertain transformations - New domestic and international challenges. Proceedings of the international conference, Riga, November 9–11, 2006 = Neskaidrās transformācijas - Jauni izaicinājumi nacionālā un starptautiskā līmenī. Starptautiskās konferences ziņojumi, Rīga, 2006. g. 9-11 novembris. Latvijas universitāte, Sociālo un politisko pētījumu institūts, Riga 2007, ISBN 9984-802-58-2 (Latvian and English).
  • Nacionālo minoritāšu konvencija. Discriminācijas novēršana un identitātes saglabāšana Latvijā. Latvijas universitāte Akadēmiskais apgāds, Riga 2007, ISBN 9984-802-78-7 (Latvian).
  • Manufacturing enemy images? Russian media portrayal of Latvia. Riga 2008, ISBN 978-9984-825-88-5 .
  • Georgian security. A Latvian perspective. Riga 2008, ISBN 978-9984-825-19-9 .
  • How integrated is Latvian society? Aan audit of achievements, failures, and challenges. Riga 2010, ISBN 978-9984-45-172-5 .
  • The geopolitics of history in Latvian-Russian relations. Riga 2011, ISBN 978-9984-45-323-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Muižnieks: mazas valsts pārstāvja kļūšana par EP cilvēktiesību komisāru ir rets gadījums ( delfi.lv , January 25, 2012, Latvian, accessed March 1, 2012)
  2. ^ Latvian press review on February 8, 2012 , accessed on February 29, 2012.
  3. ^ Karl-Otto Sattler: A step towards normality in "Das Parlament", No. 4–5, p. 8.
  4. ^ Website of the Advanced Social and Political Research Institute (ASPRI) , accessed February 29, 2012.
  5. ^ Nils Muižnieks: Europe Is Spying on You. In: New York Times. October 27, 2015, accessed October 27, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Detailed biography on the website of the Commissioner for Human Rights, accessed on September 4, 2014 (English).
personal data
SURNAME Muižnieks, Nils
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Muižnieks, Nils Raymond
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Latvian scientist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California