team

We are a 30-strong team of lawyers, academics, paralegals and non-legal professionals at varying stages of their professional lives. What unites us is a belief in human rights for all, a passion to enforce indiscriminate human rights protection, and the determination to improve individuals’ factual and legal human rights realities through legal means.

We believe that combining our resources to achieve our goals, will benefit the projects we work on and as well as everyone in the team. If you are interested in becoming a member, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Board

Tatiana Urdaneta Wittek	is a domestically (Austria, Germany) and internationally experienced practising lawyer responsible for the development of CEHRI in Austria. Tatiana believes in an environment that will offer sustainable living space for all generations to come, and has initiated a number of local citizens’ initiatives accompanied by legal action. Tatiana speaks German, English, Italian and French.
Tessa Antonia Schrempf	spent 2.5 years working on international human rights cases in Austria, as well as some months at the ECtHR, half a year with the International Commission of Jurists as researcher and has substantially contributed to a report on the nomination of judges for the Open Society Justice Initiative. Her passion is the development of a global economy that respects individual and collective human rights, which is why she focuses on anti-poverty litigation. Based in London, Tessa works predominantly in German and English, and speaks French, Italian and some Russian.
Graeme Lawrence Hall	is a British barrister with a long record of human rights cases in different areas of law, including international law, extradition, crime, civil disputes, mental health and public law. Graeme spent half a year in Uganda setting up a project on death row.

Operations

Vlad Marica

is an engineer and project manager experienced in information technology, aeronautics and urban mobility. Vlad is responsible for CEHRI operations and scientific research related to his areas of expertise. Based in Vienna, Vlad speaks English, French, German and Romanian.

Advisory Board

Prof. Manfred Nowak	is Secretary General of the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC, in Venice), Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Vienna (retired) and Scientific Director of the Vienna Master of Arts in Human Rights as well as the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights. Previously, Manfred served as a judge at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and was UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. In 2016, he was appointed Independent Expert leading the United Nations Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty.
Dr. Wolfgang Petritsch	is the President of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, Chair of the Herbert Kelman Institute for Interactive Conflict Transformation, Cambridge-Vienna-Jerusalem, and a member of the European Leadership Network (London). He has published extensively and held professorships at the universities of Harvard, Berkeley and Vienna. Previously, Wolfgang was the Press Secretary and Deputy Chief of Cabinet to former Austrian Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, before serving as Ambassador to Yugoslavia. Wolfgang has held numerous national and international posts; including as EU Special Envoy and Chief Negotiator at the Kosovo peace negotiations, UN-High Representative in BiH in charge of the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords, Chair of the International Succession Commission for the SFRY, as well as Austria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, the WTO and the OECD, amongst others.
Dr. Astrid Reisinger Coracini	is a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer at the Department of international law and international relations of the University of Vienna. She is also director of the Salzburg Law School of International Criminal Law, Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law and serves as Adjunct Professor for international law at Webster Vienna Private University. Astrid is an acknowledged expert in international criminal law. She has been a member of the Austrian delegations at the Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court and at the first review conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. On a national level, she was a member of the expert group for the implementation of crimes under international law into the Austrian criminal code and a member of the expert group for the implementation of the crime of aggression into the German code of crimes against international law.
DDr. Elisabeth Steiner	is a human rights lawyer and member of the senior expert council of the law firm Lansky, Ganzger + partners in Vienna. She has extensive knowledge on international human rights law, international law and the rule of law following her longstanding successful career representing the most vulnerable; followed by two terms spent as a judge at the bench of the European Court of Human Rights, including as Vice President of Section I of the Court. Elisabeth also holds multiple visiting professorships in Beijing, Hong Kong and Yantai, lectures at the University of Stanford and at SFU, alongside the Universities of Vienna and Graz, as well as at the Danube University in Krems; accompanied by regular publications on rule of law matters.
Prof. Dr.med. Thomas Wenzel	is a Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, as well as the Chair of the World Psychiatric Association Scientific Section on Psychological Aspects of Torture and Persecution. In the past, he worked as Medical Director/ Head Programs of IRCT (International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Survivors) and as Secretary General of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health. Prof Wenzel has a long- standing history of international work in war and conflict areas, in the assessment and support of survivors of torture and also in teaching standards such as the UN/WMA Istanbul Protocol on investigation of torture, inter alia as scientific coordinator of EU ARTIP/ATIP and other projects for the Istanbul Protocol. He is also the President of ÖGBA (Austrian Association for Bioanalytics), associate member of the World Medical Association, and an honorary member of the Syrian Association for Mental Health.