Max van der Stoel Human Rights Awards 2025 presented to outstanding young scholars

On 10 December 2025, International Human Rights Day, the Max van der Stoel Human Rights Awards 2025 were presented to Masuma Shahid (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Camille Teirlynck (KU Leuven) and Romy Babtist (VU Amsterdam).

Coordinated by the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research (NNHRR) and Tilburg Law School, the awards recognise the best dissertation, best Master’s thesis, and second-best Master’s thesis in the field of human rights in Flanders and the Netherlands in 2025.

Award-winning publications

• Masuma Shahid, “Queering courts: Analysing equal marriage rights cases before the European Court of Human Rights, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the United States Supreme Court”
• Camille Teirlynck, “A procedural view on individual academic freedom: A comparative-evaluative research on the legal and judicial protection of individual academic freedom against institutional interference”
• Romy Babtist, “At the gate of Europe: Unveiling the newly introduced Pre-entry Phase under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum through the lens of the German Airport Procedure”

The Max van der Stoel Human Rights Awards are presented every two years. 2025 marks the 27th edition, with 24 nominations submitted by Dutch and Flemish universities, including 11 doctoral dissertations. The jury was chaired by Koen Lemmens (KU Leuven).

About the Max van der Stoel Human Rights Award

Established in 1995 by Tilburg University and renamed in 2002 in honour of Max van der Stoel (1924–2011), the award celebrates outstanding academic work in human rights. Since 2019, it has been jointly organised by Tilburg Law School and the NNHRR. The award aims to encourage young researchers, with nominations open to graduate, pre-doctoral and post-doctoral scholars from Dutch and Flemish universities or associated to the T.M.C. Asser Institute in The Hague.