Daan Smeekens is a Research Fellow at the International Research and Consulting Center of the Institute of Federalism, Fribourg in Switzerland. Holding an LL.M. from the University of Antwerp in Belgium, where he majored in sustainable development and global justice, he has been trained in public international law, federalism and conflict resolution, as well as in human rights law at the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Daan Smeekens was a participant at the 2023 Winter School on Federalism and Governance.