Paul Hunt, a New Zealand and British national, practised as a litigation solicitor in London before specializing in international and domestic human rights law. He has lived and undertaken human rights work in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the South Pacific. In the 1980s, he was legal officer of the London-based National Council for Civil Liberties (Liberty). Between 1990 and 1992, he was associate director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in Banjul, Gambia. Between 1992 and 2000, he was senior lecturer at Waikato University, in New Zealand. In 1998, he was nominated by the Government of New Zealand and elected by the UN to serve as an independent expert on the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1999-2002). Between 2002 and 2008, he served as UN special rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health and, in 2008, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Nordic School of Public Health. In 2011 and 2013, Professor Hunt advised WHO Assistant Director-General Dr. Flavia Bustreo on human rights issues. He is a member of the Human Rights Centre at Essex University and adjunct professor at Waikato University, New Zealand.