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Morten Kjærum is Adj. Professor at Aalborg University & Affiliated Scholar, with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. From 2015-24 he was the Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Morten was the first Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and was founding director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights. He started his career in the Danish Refugee Council. Morten has been a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. For six years he served as Chairperson of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles. Appointed by the UN Secretary General to the UN Board of Trustees of the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights He is board member of the US-based Center for Democracy and Technology. He has published extensively on a variety of human rights issues and in particular on topics related to refugee protection and inclusion.
Morten has published extensively on a variety of human rights issues and in particular on topics related to refugee protection and inclusion.
Morten has served on the Humanity in Action Denmark Board of Directors through most of Humanity in Action Denmark’s history.
Updated June 2025
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Pre-Genocide - Warnings and Readiness to Protect
An anthology of personal interpretations, by researchers and writers, about alarm bells and the readiness to protect prior to genocides. The essays in this volume focus on the 1930s before the Holocaust in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark - as well as the years before the genocides in Armenia, Cambodia, Kurdistan, Rwanda and Bosnia.
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We will discuss Idealism vs. Pragmatism with Humanity in Action Denmark board member and Director of Raoul Wallenberg Inst. for Human Rights, Morten Kjærum. Is idealism or pragmatism the better way to change the world to the better? Should you always seek dialogue or is it sometimes better to stay strong on core principles?