A Doctor of Law and specialising in criminology and with a higher education teaching qualification, Françoise Tulkens was a research fellow at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research and a professor at the UCL.
She has taught in Belgium as well as overseas, as a guest professor at the Universities of Geneva, Ottawa, Paris I, Rennes, Strasbourg and at Louisiana State University, lecturing in general and special penal law, comparative and European law, youth protection law and the human rights protection systems.
This energetic woman has also been a board member and President of the French-speaking League of Human Rights (1996-1998) and an expert with the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture in 1996 and 1997.
On 1 November 1998, Françoise Tulkens' career took a new turn. Chosen as Belgian judge at the European Court of Human Rights, in 2007, she took over the position of Section President and, in January 2011 up until the end of her mandate in September 2012, the position of Vice-President of the Court.
In September 2012, Françoise Tulkens was appointed member of the United Nations Human Rights Advisory Panel in Kosovo. Since June 2013, she has also been a member of the scientific committee for the European Union's Agency for Fundamental Rights.
Françoise Tulkens was ennobled by King Albert II of Belgium in 2009. Since 2011, she has been an associate member of the Royal Academy of Belgium (Technology and Society Class). She currently chairs the Board of Directors of the King Baudouin Foundation.
