Anja Mihr (born 1969) is a German political scientist and human rights researcher, who has worked largely in the area of international human rights regimes, human rights education and within the civil society sector. She is an internationally known academic working on human rights and governance issues and has taught in various Universities for longer periods in Germany, the United States, Italy, China and the Netherlands. Her main work focuses on human rights, governance and transitional justice, looking at the interlinkage between institutions, organizations and the way human rights realization can be leveraged.
Anja Mihr has also served in various international academic and NGO advisory committees on human rights and from 2002–2006 she was member of the Executive Board of Amnesty International Germany.
Anja Mihr is director of the Center on Governance through Human Rights at the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platfrom (gGmbH) in Berlin. [1] . She is a political consultant and advisor on Transitional Justice, Cyber Justice and Climate Justice and has held various professorships in this field. Until 2017, she has been substitute full Professor for Public Policy at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at Erfurt University in Germany. Prior to this, she has been Associate Professor at the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She has held numerous other positions at think tanks, such as Head of Rule of Law at The Hague Institute for Global Justice and at internationally known academic institutions such as Peking University (Beida) in Beijing, the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC) in Venice, Columbia University in New York or Humboldt University in Berlin. Anja's interdisciplinary background has focused on combining concepts of social sciences and international human rights law in her research and publications.
Mihr is founder of the professional online-Master's degree in Governance and Human Rights in Germany.
She graduated from Free University in Berlin. Her doctoral thesis on the Impact of Amnesty International's human rights work in the GDR (East Germany) during the period of the Cold War until 1989 was published in 2001.
Manou/Baldwin/Cubie/Mihr/Thorp: Climate Change, Migration and Human Rights, Law and Policy Perspectives, Routledge Studies in Environmental Migration, Displacement and Resettlement, Routlegde, Francis & Taylor, 2017
Mihr/Pickel/Pickel: Handbuch Transitional Justice, VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, 2017
Mihr/Gibney: Handbook of Human Rights, 2 vol. SAGE Publication, London et al, 2014
The SAGE Handbook of Human Rights (2 Volumes) 2014
Amnesty International, die Menschenrechte und der KSZE-Prozess, in Peter/ Wentker. (eds.), Die KSZE im Ost-West-Konflikt, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2012 pp. 233–248
Transitional Justice and the Quality of Democracy – From Democratic Institution Building to Reconciliation, in: Anja Mihr (ed.) Transitional Justice: Between Criminal Justice, Atonement and Democracy, SIM Special No. 37, Utrecht University, 2012, pp. 11–50
The Impact of Amnesty International’s Policies and Campaigns During the Cold War – the Case Study of East Germany, in: Wilco de Jonge, Brianne McGonigle-Leyh, Anja Mihr and Lars van Troost (eds.), 50 Years of Amnesty International, Reflections and Perspectives, SIM Special 36, University of Utrecht, 2011, pp. 21–50.
Human Rights in the 21st Century; Continuity and Change since 9/11 (together with Goodhart) (eds.), Palgrave Macmillian, 2011
The UN-Decade for Human Rights Education and the Inclusion of National Minorities, (together with Mahler/Toivanen) (eds.), Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt/ Berlin, 2009.
Human Rights Awareness, Education and Democratization: The challenge for the 21st Century, in: Journal of Human Rights, Volume 8, Issue 2, April 2009, Routledge, Francis & Taylor Group, London, pp. 177–189.
Amnesty International in der DDR, Der Einsatz für Menschenrechte im Visier der Stasi, Chrs. Links Verlag, Berlin, 2002.
Studies and reviews
The Glasshouse of the Cyberworld , The Indian Economist, India, July 2016 [2]
NGOs in Conflict Transition, for The Global South Unit for Mediation, Brazil, July 2016 [3]
Die schwierige Aufarbeitung von Menschenrechtsverletzung, Feature and Interview in German Broadcast (Deutschlandfunk) February 2016 [4]
Rule of Law, security and transitional justice in fragile and conflict affected states, (together with C.L. Sriram) Background Papers, Commission on Global Security, Justice & Governance, The Hague Institute for Global Justice & Stimson Institute, Washington DC August 2015 [5]
Public Privacy, Human Rights in Cyberspace, SIM Working Paper, Utrecht University, December 2013
Rule of Law and Transitional Justice. Towards a triangular learning. The case of Colombia GIZ-EIUC Publication, September 2013.
Public Privacy- Cyber Security & Human Rights, Massive Open Online Course for iversity.org, December 2013.
The misunderstanding: Human rights are recognized equally in Europe and Asia – but implemented differently. An essay. March 2013.
Transitional Justice and the Quality of Democracy – From Democratic Institution Building to Reconciliation,
SIM Working paper, Utrecht University, January 2012.
Human Rights Benchmarks for EU’s External Policy, DROI, European (EU) Parliament, Directorate-General for External Policies, Political Department, 2011, EXPO/B/DROI/2011/15
