Parmentier, Stephan

Stephan Parmentier studied law, political science and sociology at the universities of Ghent and Leuven (Belgium) and sociology and conflict resolution at the Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (U.S.A.). He currently teaches sociology of crime, law, and human rights at the Faculty of Law of the University of Leuven, and since September 2017 serves as the Chairperson of the Interfaculty Council of Development Cooperation at the same university. 

In July 2010 he was elected Secretary-General of the International Society for Criminology (re-elected in August 2014), and since many years he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Centre of Criminology and the International Centre for Transitional Justice (New York). His multi-year and EU funded exchange project between Europe and Canada ‘Globus: Social Justice and Human Rights in a Globalised World’ (2002-2006) was ranked as a ‘good practice’ by the European Commission in 2008, and in November 2017 he received the Award “Third Way” from the Serbian Society of Victimology for his research on a non-conflict and comprehensive approach to dealing with war and war crimes.

All over the globe he has served as a visiting professor (Oñati, San José, Sydney, Tilburg, Tokyo, and Venice), visiting scholar (Buenos Aires, Harvard, Oxford, Stellenbosch, Sydney) and guest lecturer in the fields of human rights, justice and peace, criminology and socio-legal studies. Stephan Parmentier is the founder and general editor of the international book ‘Series on Transitional Justice’ (Intersentia Publishers, Cambridge/Antwerp), and editor of the ‘International Journal of Restorative Justice’ (Eleven Publishing, The Hague). He co-founded and co-directs the Flemish Interuniversity Research Network on Law and Development and co-organised for many years the summer courses on Human Rights for Development. He also serves as a referee to the ERC funding schemes of the European Union, and several national and international research foundations.

Over the past quarter century he has been an advisor and consultant to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the Belgian Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice, the Belgian Federal Police, the King Baudouin Foundation, and Amnesty International. His research interests include political crimes and transitional justice, human rights and migration, and restorative justice and peacebuilding. Between 1999 and 2002 he served as the vice-president of the Flemish section of Amnesty International.