Rafał Kownacki

Rafał Kownacki (born November 14, 1980 in Ciechanów, Poland) is a Polish lawyer. Currently he is the member of the Legal Committee as well as the Global Policy Committee of Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d'Auteurs et Compositeurs. Between 2018 and 2020 he was the first Polish member of the Board of GESAC - the European Authors Societies’ . Since 2017 he is the deputy CEO of the oldest Polish collective management organisation - ZAiKS.

Between 2007 and 2013 he was as an analyst on international law and human rights at the Polish Institute of International Affairs and the advisor to the Polish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in humanitarian law.

Between 1997 and 1999 he was the chairman of Youth City Council in Ciechanów.

He has campaigned actively to protect human rights, served as a member of the board in Amnesty International Poland and president of the European Foundation of Law. He was a candidate of AI to European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). He was responsible for successful campaign in favor of EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.

Apart from his legal education, he has graduated Human Rights Academy at the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and School of Human Rights at the Centre for American Law of Chicago-Kent College of Law.

He is the lecturer at Collegium Civitas. Between 2007 and 2015 he was the secretary and member of the Chair of International Law in the Polish Academy of Sciences. He teaches European Law and International Law at the European School of Law and Administration. He has also taught at the Warsaw University and Academy of Diplomats.

He is the Polish coordinator of an international academic project WaCoPaS and member of the jury committee at the European Legal Olympiad.