Professor at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and at the German University of Administrative Sciences (Speyer, Germany). Former Deputy Registrar of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.

A Belgian national, Johan Callewaert studied Law and Philosophy in Louvain and Würzburg (Germany). From 1983-1989 he was a research assistant at the Institute for Comparative Law of the Würzburg University, where he earned a doctorate in law.

From 1989 to 2025 he was a member of the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, where he became successively Lawyer, Head of Division, Head of Private Office of the President of the Court and Deputy Registrar of the Grand Chamber. He also served as Secretary to the Court’s EU Law Committee.

In this capacity he was a member of the delegation of the Council of Europe Observers in the Convention which drafted the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and Observer of the European Court of Human Rights in the negotiations on EU-accession to the European Convention on Human Rights.