Malcolm Evans is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Bristol, UK. He was also a trustee of Cumberland Lodge from 2010 to 2020, serving two full terms in office, and he retains a close connection to our work.
Malcolm's areas of legal specialism includes both international human rights protection and the international law of the sea. In the field of human rights his particular interests concern torture and torture prevention and the protection of religious liberty under international law.
Malcolm became a member of the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture (the SPT) in 2009 and since 2011 has served as its Chair. In 2014-15 he was Chair of the Meeting of Chairs of UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies. From 2002 - 2013 he was a member of the OSCE ODIHR Advisory Council on the Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Since 2010, Malcolm has been a member of the UK Foreign Secretary's Human Rights Advisory Group. In 2015 he was appointed as a Member of Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales. From 2003-5 he was Head of the School of Law and from 2005-2009 Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law at the University of Bristol.
He is also General Editor of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly and Co-Editor in Chief of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion.
Major published works include: Religious Liberty and International Law in Europe (CUP, 1997), Preventing Torture (OUP, 1998), Combating Torture in Europe (Council of Europe, 2002), Manual on the Wearing of Religious Symbols in Public Areas (Council of Europe/Brill, 2009), The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OUP, 2011), The Changing Nature of Religious Rights under International Law (OUP, 2015, editor). He is Editor of International Law (OUP, 4th ed, 2014) and Blackstone's International Law Documents (OUP, 12th ed, 2015).
Malcolm was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 2016 New Year Honours, for services to torture prevention and religious freedom.