Theo van Boven was born in the Netherlands in 1934 and obtained a doctorate in law in 1967. He was for ten years until 1977 a lecturer in human rights at the University of Amsterdam and from 1970 to '75 was the Netherlands' representative on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. From 1977 to 1982 he was Director of the UN Division of Human Rights, since when he has been Professor of Law at the University of Limburg. In addition, van Boven has served on numerous Councils and Committees dealing with human rights, including the Council of the International Institute of human Rights (France) and the European Human Rights Foundation (UK), of which he was the Chairman.

In recent years, Theo van Boven continued to work for human rights in various fora. From 1986 to 1991 he served as an expert member of the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights and as Special Rapporteur on the Right to Reparation to Victims of Gross Violations of Human Rights. He is still a member of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, one of the treaty bodies of the UN. Van Boven remains associated with the work of a number of non-governmental human rights organisations. For instance, he is a commissioner on the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists (Geneva). He is also a co-director of the Maastricht Center for Human Rights of the University of Limburg.

As director of the UN Division of Human Rights, van Boven argued consistently that concern for human rights should not be a marginal activity within the UN system, but should become the core element of development strategies on all levels. He sought to break through the selective approach of the UN in human rights matters, and to deal more consistently with the gross violations of human rights in a large number of countries on all continents, including enforced disappearances, torture, summary and arbitrary execution, and discrimination against indigenous peoples.

He contributed to the creation of fact-finding mechanisms in these areas in order to bring pressure on defaulting authorities and to provide relief to victims. He was concerned also to identify the root causes of human rights violations in connection with the development process, patterns of economic and political domination, militarisation of societies and racial discrimination. In addition, he worked hard to strengthen the links of his office with non-governmental organisations.

Van Boven's uncompromising approach to these matters led to major policy differences in the UN Secretary General, which in turn led to his UN contract being terminated in 1982.