Paul Hunt is British–New Zealand human rights expert who specialises in economic, social and cultural rights. Between 2019–2024, he held the office of Chief Commissioner at the New Zealand Human Rights Commission.
Formerly a Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato he is Professor of Law at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex. He has held senior UN human rights appointments, including Member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health and Senior Human Rights Advisor to the Assistant WHO Director-General, Flavia Bustreo.
Background In 1979, he graduated from Cambridge University (UK) with a law degree. Between 1982–1985, he worked for law firm Kingsley Napley (London) as a civil and criminal litigation solicitor, and assistant to the Senior Partner, Sir David Napley. In 1988, he married New Zealander Joan E. Taylor and in 1992 moved to New Zealand where he took up the position of Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato. In 1995, he was awarded a Masters of Jurisprudence (1st Class Hons) by the University of Waikato (New Zealand). In 2000, he was appointed Professor of Law at the University of Essex (UK) and also became a Visiting Professor at the University of Waikato. In 2018, he moved back to New Zealand to take up the position of Chief Commissioner in the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. In January 2024 his 5-year term ended and he returned to his position as Professor at Essex University.
Human rights In 1985, Hunt left private practice and became a human rights lawyer in Israel/Palestine working for Quaker Peace and Service. Between 1985 and 1987, he lived in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and researched the Israeli Military Courts. Published in 1987, Justice? The Military Court System in the Israeli-Occupied Territories, examined the Military Courts through the "lens" of Israel's international human rights obligations.Paul Hunt, Justice? The Military Court System in the Israeli-Occupied Territories, examined the Military Courts through the 'lens' of Israel's international human rights obligations.
On his return to the UK, Hunt worked with Sydney D. Bailey on an inter-denominational project about human rights in Britain and Ireland. This Quaker project included Mary Robinson, shortly to become the President of Ireland, and David Trimble, shortly to become leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and First Minister of Northern Ireland. The project led to Human Rights and Responsibilities in Britain and Ireland, edited by Bailey,Sydney Bailey (ed.), Human rights and responsibilities in Britain and Ireland, Macmillan, 1988. and a shorter version, A Christian Perspective on Human Rights and Responsibilities: with Special Reference to Northern Ireland, edited by Hunt.
Between 1987–1990, Hunt worked for the National Council for Civil Liberties/Liberty (UK) as Legal Officer, Head of the Legal and Campaign Team and Acting General Secretary. He conducted national and international human rights cases, including litigation in Strasbourg under the European Convention on Human Rights.For example, Thynne, Wilson and Gunnel v UK, 13 EHRR 666 In addition to prisoners' rights, he worked on the lawfulness of Northern Ireland's emergency laws.Brice Dickson and Paul Hunt, "Northern Ireland's emergency laws and international human rights", NQHR, 1993, 173,
Between 1990–1992, Hunt was appointed Associate Director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (Gambia), working under Raymond Sock (formerly Solicitor-General) and Hassan Jallow (then Minister of Justice). The Centre paralleled and monitored the new Gambian-based African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights established under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. With Jallow, Hunt co-authored one of the first publications on HIV/AIDS and human rights in Africa,Paul Hunt and Hassan Jallow, AIDS and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, ACDHRS, 1991 as well as research on African national human rights institutions.Richard Carver and Paul Hunt, National human rights institutions in Africa, ACDHRS, 1991,
Academic career
Between 1992–2000, Hunt was senior lecturer at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. The focus of his teaching and research was national and international public law, especially human rights. He began to specialise in economic, social and cultural rights and his study, Reclaiming Social Rights: International and Comparative Perspectives, was published in 1996.Paul Hunt, Reclaiming social rights: international and comparative perspectives, Dartmouth, 1996. This was one of the first books published on social rights. Reviewing it in the Human Rights Quarterly, Barbara Stark remarked upon the book's ambition and concluded, "Hunt succeeds brilliantly" and that the study "dazzles".Barbara Stark, Book review of Reclaiming social rights: international and comparative perspectives, HRQ, 1999, 547, at 548.
At the University of Waikato, Hunt looked at human rights in New Zealand and the South Pacific, including the relationship between culture and rights, as well as the rights of indigenous peoples, which led to scholarship such as Culture, Rights and Cultural Rights: Perspectives from the South Pacific, co-edited with Margaret Wilson.Paul Hunt and Margaret Wilson (eds.), Culture, rights and cultural rights: perspectives from the South Pacific, Huia, 2000. Between 1996–97, he was a visiting fellow at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program. In 2000, Hunt, Janet McLean, Bill Mansfield and Peter Cooper were commissioned by New Zealand's Attorney-General to prepare an independent report on the country's national human rights institutions.Peter Cooper, Paul Hunt, Bill Mansfield and Janet McLean, Re-Evaluation of the Human Rights Protections in New Zealand, Report for the Associate Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Ministry of Justice, Wellington, 2000. Many of their recommendations have been implemented by legislative and other reforms.
In 2000, Hunt was appointed Professor of Law at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex (UK), a position he still holds. At Essex, his teaching and research focus is national and international human rights, with a particular emphasis on economic, social and cultural rights, as well as human rights and development. He has served as Director of the Human Rights Centre and Chair of the Democratic Audit.
UN Committees (1999–2002)
In 1998, the New Zealand Government nominated Hunt to serve as an independent expert on the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Geneva, and he was duly elected by States. He served as the Committee's Rapporteur from 1999 to 2002. During this period, the Committee adopted several influential commentaries, known as General Comments, on economic, social and cultural rights, including on the right to adequate food,E/C.12/1999/5, 12 May 1999. right to education,E/C.12/1999/10, 8 December 1999. right to the highest attainable standard of health,E/C.12/2000/4, 11 August 2000. and right to water.E/C.12.2002/11, 20 January 2003. It also adopted some statements, including one on poverty and human rights, which broke new ground.E/C.12/2001/10, 10 May 2001. These General Comments and statements have contributed to the growth of literature, and national and international initiatives, on economic, social and cultural rights since the turn of the century.
In light of the Committee's statement on poverty, Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, asked Hunt, Manfred Nowak and Siddiq Osmani to draft detailed and operational guidance on a human rights-based approach to poverty reduction. They responded by writing Human Rights and Poverty Reduction: A Conceptual Framework,Human rights and poverty reduction: a conceptual framework, OHCHR, 2004. followed by Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies,Draft guidelines: a human rights approach to poverty reduction strategies, OHCHR, 2002. both of which were published by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). After a period of consultation, OHCHR revised the Draft Guidelines and they were published as Principles and Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies.Principles and guidelines for a human rights approach to poverty reduction strategies, OHCHR, HR/PUB/06/12.
UN Special Rapporteur (2002–2008)
In 2002, Hunt stepped down from the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and was appointed the first UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health ('right to health'). In this independent capacity, he reported, orally and in writing, to the UN General Assembly, UN Commission on Human Rights and UN Human Rights Council. For introductions to, and critiques of, Hunt's work as UN Special Rapporteur, see Paul Hunt and Sheldon Leader, "Developing and applying the right to the highest attainable standard of health: the role of the UN Special Rapporteur (2002–2008), in John Harrington and Maria Stuttaford (eds.), Global Health and Human Rights: legal and philosophical perspectives, Routledge, 2010, 28; Paul Hunt, "Interpreting the international right to health in a human rights-based approach to health," Health and Human Rights, 18/2, December 2016, 109; Michael Freeman, "The right to health", in Rhiannon Morgan and Bryan Turner, Interpreting human rights: social science perspectives, Routledge, 2009, 44; and John Tobin, The right to health in international law, OUP, 2012. He submitted thematic reports on a wide range of right to health issues, such as sexual and reproductive health,E/CN.4/2004/49, 16 February 2004. neglected diseases, mental disability,E/CN.4/2005/51, 11 February 2005. maternal mortality,A/61/338, 13 September 2006. and the health-rights responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies.A/63/263, 11 August 2008. He also visited, and wrote right to health reports on, countries, including India,A/HRC/14/20/Add.2, 15 April 2010. Peru,E/CN.4/2005/51/Add.3, 4 February 2005. Sweden,A/HRC/4/28/Add.2, 28 February 2007. and Uganda.E/CN.4/2006/48/Add.2, 19 January 2006. Hunt took the unorthodox step of undertaking visits to, and preparing right to health reports on, non-state actors,Paul Hunt, "The challenge of non-state actors: the experience of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health (2002–2008)", in Aoife Nolan, Rosa Freedman and Therese Murphy (eds.), The United Nations Special Procedures System, Brill Nijhoff, 2017. such as the World Trade Organization,E/CN.4/2004/49/Add.1, 1 March 2004. World Bank and International Monetary Fund,A/HRC/7/11/Add.2, 5 March 2008. and GlaxoSmithKline.A/HRC/11/12/Add.2, 5 May 2009. Also, he prepared reports with other Rapporteurs on Guantanamo Bay,E/CN.4/2006/120, 27 February 2006. as well as the Lebanon/Israel conflict of 2006.A/HRC/2/7, 2 October 2006.
His reports have elicited a wide response, for example, in 2005, Cynthia Rothschild discussed the report on sexual and reproductive health, "Hunt's 2004 report is certainly one of the UN system's most far-reaching documents to incorporate a focus on sexual orientation and gender identity and health".Cynthia Rothschild, Written out: how sexuality is used to attack women's organizing, IGLHRC and CWGL, 2005, 117. Some commentators called the report "shocking" and Hunt was branded "unprofessional" in the UN Commission on Human Rights.Ibif., 118.