Morten Kjaerum is the former Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Sweden. Mr Kjaerum was the first Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in Vienna, Austria from 2008 to 2015 and he was Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) from 1991 to 2008 and developed it within 17 years from a small organisation to a large internationally recognized institution. He started his career in the non-governmental sector at the Danish Refugee Council. In 2013 he was awarded an honorary professorship at the University of Aalborg, Denmark.

Mr. Kjaerum was a member (2002-2008) of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). He was appointed by the UN Secretary General as member of the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation (VFTC) in the Field of Human Rights and of the Voluntary Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance in the Implementation of the Universal Periodic Review.

Mr Kjaerum serves and has served on numerous boards among others he was chair of the International Coordination Committee for National Human Rights Institutions and he chaired the group of Directors of EU Agencies. He has also served as Chair of The Board of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE). He is at the Board of Centre for Democracy and Technology (CDT), Action Aid Denmark and Humanity in Action. He serves on the advisory Board to the Institute of Human Rights and Business and the Organisation New Europe (Nyt Europa).

Mr. Kjaerum lectures regularly at various universities across continents. He has written extensively on human rights issues and most recently co-edited the books Covid and Human Rights, Routledge (2021), Human Rights and Poverty Research Handbook, Edward Elgar, (2021) and Human Rights Economies and Subnational Governance. Routledge (2025).