François Crépeau

François Crépeau, O.C., O.Q., F.R.S.C., Dr.h.c. Clermont-Auvergne, Trudeau Fellow 2008, Ad.E., is Full Professor of public international law, at the Faculty of Law of McGill University. He was the Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law from 2009 to 2022, and the Director of the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism from 2015 to 2020. 

Professor Crépeau was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants from 2011 to 2017. In this capacity, he has conducted official visits to Albania, Tunisia, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Malta, the European institutions in Brussels and Vienna, Angola, Australia (including the Australian detention centres in Nauru). He has also produced several thematic reports: the detention of migrants, the protection of migrants’ rights at the external borders of the European Union, climate change and migration, global migration governance, labour exploitation of migrants, labour recruitment practices, trade agreements and migration. He was the Chair of the Coordination Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Procedures (2014-2015). 

Professor Crépeau was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Agency for Fundamental Rights of the European Union (FRA, Vienna, AT) (2018-2023), a member of the Advisory Committee of the International Migration Initiative of the Open Society Foundations (NY) (2017-2021), the Chair of the Thematic Working Group: Migrant Rights and Integrations in Host Communities, KNOMAD – Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development, World Bank Group (Washington, DC), and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Bureau for Children’s Rights (Montreal) (2018-2021).

He was guest professor at Université catholique de Louvain (yearly, 2010-2020). He was the 2017-2018 International Francqui Professor Chair at Université catholique de Louvain, in collaboration with six other Belgian universities (Université de Liège, Antwerp University, Université libre de Bruxelles, Université Saint-Louis, Ghent University, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven). He was the 2016-2017 Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Visiting Professor of Human Rights Chair at Georgetown University (Washington, DC). He has also been guest professor at the following institutions :  Centre de recherches sur les droits de l’homme, Université de Paris Panthéon-Assas (2018), Institut international des droits de l’homme (Strasbourg) (2001, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2015) ; Graduate Institute for International Studies (IUHEI-Genève, 2007), Institut des hautes études internationales, Université de Paris II (2002), Université d’Auvergne-Clermont 1 (1997). 

Professor Crépeau is an Officer of the Order of Canada (2017), an Officer of the Order of Quebec (2022), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2012), a Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (2008-2011), a Doctor Honoris Causa from the Université de Clermont-Auvergne (France, 2018), and an Advocatus Emeritus (Ad.E.) of the Quebec Bar Association (2013). 

From 2001 to 2008, Professor Crépeau was a professor at Université de Montréal, holder of the Canada Research Chair in International Migration Law (2004-2008) and founding director of the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal (CÉRIUM). From 1990 to 2001, he was a professor at Université du Québec à Montréal. 

Until 2011, Professor Crépeau also sat on the Quebec Law Society’s Committee on Human Rights and Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, was the “Justice, Police and Security” domain coordinator for the Quebec Metropolis Centre, and was a member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. He served as vice-president of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation (now Equitas) (1992-2004) and director of the Revue québécoise de droit international (1996-2004). He participated in observer missions in the occupied Palestinian territories (2002) and in El Salvador (1991). 

Professor Crépeau holds degrees from McGill University (BCL and LLB), Bordeaux University (DEUG and Licence in law, Master’s in private law), Paris II University (DEA in legal sociology) and Paris I University (DEA in Business Law and Ph.D. in law).