Angelika Nußberger has held a variety of positions in Europe responsible for improving human rights, democracy and the rule of law. In 2010, she was elected judge for Germany of the European Court of Human Rights and served as its first German Vice-President from 2017 to 2019.
She has been a member of the Venice Commission since 2006, except during her term of office at the Court. She is also a judge on the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, trying to keep a fragile but necessary institution afloat.
She is a lawyer by training, having held high legal positions, but also an expert in Slavic studies. Therefore, being familiar with Central and Eastern Europe, she devoted herself to building bridges between different (legal) cultures in various parts of Europe. Her advice on constitutional matters was much needed after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Eastern European countries were interested in adopting new constitutions and laws based on democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
Explaining differences and similarities and finding compromises was all the more important when new tensions arose between Eastern and Western Europe; she has never shied away from tackling the most complex issues. Next to being a professor at the University of Cologne, she is the founding director of the Academy of European Human Rights Protection, passing on her practical knowledge to the younger generation.
The project “75 women in 75 years of Council of Europe history” is organised by the Delegation of the European Union to the Council of Europe with the Council of Europe and the Permanent Representations of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
