The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law is an independent academic institution, founded in 1984 at the Law Faculty at Lund University in Sweden. In legal terms the Institute is a charitable trust under Swedish private law, governed by a Board of Directors. It is named after Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, in order to pay homage to his well known humanitarian work in Hungary at the end of the Second World War.

The mission of the Institute is to promote universal respect for human rights and humanitarian law, by means of research, academic education, dissemination of information and institutional development programmes and our vision is to be a centre of excellence promoting the development of societies based on a human rights culture. 

The Institute cooperates with a variety of Swedish and international partners. In addition to the close cooperation with Lund University, the Institute maintains relations with other academic institutions, international organisations, government agencies and civil society organisations in different parts of the world. The Institute is member of several Nordic, European and international networks within the framework of its mandate.

 

What They Do

The Raoul Wallenberg Institute engages in research and academic education, as well as in institutional capacity development activities such as training and advice for government agencies mainly in the field of administration of justice, national human rights institutions and academic institutions in Sweden and abroad.

Hosting one of the largest human rights libraries in northern Europe and engaged in various education, research and publication activities, the Institute provides a conducive environment for studies and research. The Institute combines its academic programmes with extensive international human rights capacity development programmes. This combination provides a unique platform where theory and practice can meet and interact in order to further the development and application of international human rights law.

The Institute’s activities do not include monitoring of state compliance in the human rights field or any other activities that could be interpreted to be of confrontational character. Furthermore, the Institute does not handle individual complaints regarding alleged human rights violations.