Frederick John Packer

John Packer is Neuberger-Jesin Professor of International Conflict Resolution in the Faculty of Law and Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa. He previously taught at the Fletcher School (Tufts University, USA) and the University of Essex (UK), held Fellowships at Cambridge and Harvard Universities, and has lectured at academic and professional institutions around the world. Over his 30-year career, he was an inter-governmental official for 20 years (UNHCR, ILO, OHCHR, UNDPA, OSCE) and has advised numerous governments, communities and other actors in over fifty countries. As a UN staff member in the early 1990s, he investigated serious violations of human rights in Iraq, Afghanistan and Burma/Myanmar. From 1995 to 2004, he was Senior Legal Adviser then the first Director in the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities advising in conflict across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union including mediating Ukraine-Russia relations and contributing to constitution- and law-making in Ukraine and development of democratic institutions (work he has continued to do). In 2012-2014, he was the Constitutions and Process Design Expert on the UN’s Standby Team of Mediation Experts working around the world. The focus of his research and practice is at the inter-section of human rights (including minority rights) and security, notably conflict prevention and quiet diplomacy, international mediation, transitional arrangements, constitutional and legal reform, and institutional developments at domestic and multilateral levels.