Daniela Heerdt

Current work

As Head of Education and Research, Daniela is responsible for growing the research and education profile of the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, including developing content for the Global Sport and Human Rights Academy and building and maintaining the Global Sport and Human Rights Research Network. She also helps with advising sport bodies in developing human rights policies, contributes to the Centre's work on remedy, and leads on or supports the Centre's submissions to international consultation processes in particular those led by relevant UN institutions.

Previous experience

In 2021, Daniela defended her PhD dissertation, titled "Blurred lines of responsibility and accountability: Human rights abuses at mega-sporting events", which deals with the establishment of responsibility for human rights abuses that occur in the context of hosting mega-sporting events. During her time as PhD candidate, she acquired a teaching certificate for University teaching, focusing mainly on courses on human rights and international law. She also functioned as PhD representative to the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research and chaired the Business and Human Rights Working Group within that network.
Daniela did an LL.M. in public international law and human rights law and after graduating she worked as a researcher for Tilburg Law School, where she was involved in a book project and taught business and human rights classes in Zimbabwe and South Africa. She continued as a teacher at Utrecht University before she was accepted for the PhD position at Tilburg Law School.