Janos Fiala-Butora

János Fiala-Butora is a Lecturer in International Disability Law at the Centre for Disability Law and Policy. He received his law degree from Comenius University (Slovakia), and also holds a degree in International Relations from the University of Economics (Slovakia), an LLM in International Human Rights Law (2004) from Central European University (CEU, Budapest), and an SJD from Harvard Law School (2016), where his doctoral research focused on international human rights standards relating to legal capacity of persons with disabilities. János is also a human rights attorney with extensive experience in representing persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and persons deprived of their liberty before the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Committee on the Right of Persons with Disabilities and other international bodies, including some high profile judgments in the area of freedom from torture, legal capacity and access to education. He also actively consults with governments on their human rights laws and policies, and has advised a number of Council of Europe and UN bodies. From 2005 to 2008, he was the first legal officer of the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC), developing the organizations litigation and advocacy work in Central and Eastern Europe. He later served as the Legal Director of the Disability Rights Center (DRC), Executive Director of Minority Rights Group Europe (MRGE), Director of the Central Europe Program of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD), and Executive Director of Validity (former MDAC). His research focuses on international human rights mechanisms, rights of persons with disabilities, and ethnic and minorities.