Lic. iur. Thomas Kirchschläger

After studying law at the University of Bern and Louvain-la-Neuve (Be), Thomas Kirchschläger was admitted to the bar in 2002. In 2020/2021, he completed the academic training programme for mediation and conflict management at the University of Fribourg (CAS). Thomas Kirchschläger has been writing a dissertation on "the individual complaints procedure at the UN Commission on the Rights of the Child" at the University of Lucerne since 2021.

He founded the International Human Rights Forum (IHRF: 2004-2020), the Centre for Human Rights Education (ZMRB: 2007-2020), launched and co-directs the Specialisation in Human Rights Education (SPMB: 2008 to date) and the CAS Human Rights Education (CAS HRE: 2011 to 2020) at the Lucerne University of Teacher Education. Since 2020, he has been a lecturer and responsible for human rights education at the Institute for Education in Social Sciences at the University of Teacher Education Lucerne, specialising in civic education: Human Rights and Democracy. In his work, he focuses on children's rights, participation, involvement and recognition in schools, institutions and society in general. He is responsible for the project Learning Environment Children's Rights (LUKIRE: since 2017).

Together with Thomas Metzger, University of Teacher Education St. Gallen, he launched a CAS in 2023 on the topic of children's rights, democracy and human rights, provides further training and advises and supports institutions and schools. He has been a specialist advisor for children's rights education in Lucerne since 2020. In addition to his work at the Lucerne University of Teacher Education, he has been President of the Social and Society Commission (KSG) of the Canton of Lucerne since 2012, has co-chaired the cantonal sub-network Schüler:innenpartizipation since 2013, has been active in the working group on human rights education in Reckahn (Brandenburg/Potsdam) since 2011 and is co-founder of Dialogwerkstatt.ch.