Cees J Hamelink University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dr. Cees Hamelink (Rotterdam, 1940) studied moral philosophy and psychology of religion in Amsterdam where he received his PhD degree in 1975 at the University of Amsterdam. He worked as journalist, policy adviser and researcher for many different institutions. Among them were Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNESCO, Inter Press Service, International Red Cross, SIDA, World Association for Christian Communication, IDRC (Canada) and UNRISD. He guest-lectured in some 40 countries. Among them Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Lithuania, Malaysia,Norway, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Venezuela.
He founded the People’s Communication Charter, was in 2016 appointed by the Royal Flemish Academy of Sciences and Arts as “Thinker”, is honorary president of the International Association for Media and Communication Researchand and fellow of the International Communication Association.
He is emeritus professor of international communication at the University of Amsterdam, emeritus professor of management of information and knowledge for sustainable development at the University of Aruba and currently Athena professor of human rights and public health at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. He is editor-in-chief of the International Communication Gazette and president of the Rescue our Future Foundation.
Prof. Hamelink has published 19 books on human rights, culture and technology and received life-time achievement awards from the International Communication Association and the World Association for Christian Communication. In 2020 he published with Palgrave Mac Millan “Communication and Peace” and forthcoming in 2021 is Communication and Human Rights with Polity Press and The History of the IAMCR with Kaarle Nordenstreng to be published by Palgrave MacMillan. He also edited 12 books and published over 200 articles, chapters, papers in various academic publications. Topics included development ethics, human rights, international media and information technology.
Prof. Hamelink is also a musician and has in recent years produced CDs with jazz and classical music. Among them are September, Sharing Shearing, and Solace.