Doctor of Laws Kamrul Hossain has been appointed as
the new Director of the Northern Institute of Environmental and Minority Law (NIEM)
of the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland. Hossain has worked as the acting
Director of the Institute since August. His predecessor, Dr. Timo Koivurova, was
elected as the Director of the Arctic Centre.

Born in Bangladesh
in 1972, Hossain has a Master of Laws degrees from the Universities of Dhaka,
Helsinki and Aix-Marseille-III. He graduated as Doctor of Laws from the University
of Lapland in 2007 with a dissertation about United Nations Security Council and has
worked as Senior Researcher at the Arctic Centre ever since. He has published more
than 40 peer-reviewed articles on the field of International Law.

“With new developments taking place in the Arctic due to rapid
transformation of the region, it is obvious that more research for a better Arctic
governance is an absolute necessity. Given that the region faces multifaceted
challenges in terms of maintaining environmental integrity as well as sustainable
development, it is also important to examine how laws and regulations adapt to these
challenges. As a specialized Arctic Centre research unit focusing environmental and
minority law, NIEM has so far been doing outstanding work in the promotion of
knowledge to contribute to Arctic governance. Our emphasis also covers human
dimensions applicable broadly to Arctic populations including its 400,000 indigenous
peoples”, says Hossain.

The Northern Institute for Environmental
and Minority Law (NIEM) is specialized, as its name says, in environmental and
minority law and has been in existence already from the year 1985. The NIEM has a
special focus on studying the law relating to (Arctic) indigenous peoples and
environmental law as it applies in the Arctic and northern region. It is one of the
three human rights research institutes in Finland, and acts as an expert
organization in the Advisory Board on Human Rights, which is an independent advisory
body on human rights issues nominated by the Finnish Government. It also leads the
Arctic Law Thematic Network of the University of the Arctic and leads and
participates in many research projects and activities.

“We at
NIEM maintain a very strong international network, in particular in legal research,
in the Arctic. While our international network gives us wider recognition in all
across the Arctic world, at the moment we are in the process of developing a strong
multi-disciplinary national network in human rights research. The recently held
multidisciplinary conference “human and fundamental rights research in Finland”
organized by NIEM to commemorate its 30th years anniversary laid the foundation of
this network. We are proud of ourselves for being so active, and for our
contribution in the promotion of knowledge in this very important discipline of law
and human rights”, tells Kamrul Hossain.

Additional
information:
Kamrul Hossain
Kamrul.hossain[at]ulapland.fi