Vitit Muntarbhorn

BA Jurisprudence 1971
BCL Law 1974
International Human Rights Expert
KBE

In 2016, Vitit Muntarbhorn was appointed as the first United Nations (UN) Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Ill health forced him to resign after a year in post, but in that short time he was able to set a clear mandate for the decriminalisation of consensual same-sex relations globally.

He has served in various UN positions: Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in North Korea; Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography; member of UN Commissions of Inquiry covering the Ivory Coast and Syria. He has heard the most harrowing of stories and witnessed the worst of humankind. He says he has learned to love rather than hate and uses running as a way of creating “happy endorphins”.

“My job is to protect and assist those who don’t have a voice. I want to use what power I may have constructively and find ways to deal with abuses of power. I feel very humble and very blessed that I can use information to help nurture change. I have always felt on the periphery and I write about people on the periphery.”

Vitit has taught extensively and in 2004 was awarded the UNESCO Human Rights Education Prize. In 2018, he was knighted for his contribution to International Human Rights.

He arrived at Keble during the winter of discontent and yet it was here he found fulfilment:

“I loved Oxford and the freedom it gave me. It gave me methodology to develop critically and analytically. It made me grow up. I made my best friends here and they are still my friends.”