An expert appointed by the Commission on Human Rights to report regularly on a chosen subject. Rapporteurs of the Commission are either thematic, with a world-wide mandate, or country-focused with a rights-wide mandate. For example, a thematic rapporteur might consider the question of torture around the world. A country rapporteur might consider the situation of all human rights in Sudan.
A member of a European Parliament Committee selected to draft the Committee's report on a specific issue such as a legislative proposal. Their role is to research the background to the topic, bring forward their own ideas and combine them with a synthesis of the views of other Committee members. Once amended and adopted by the Committee, the rapporteur's report becomes the main basis for discussion, amendment and adoption by the plenary. The influence of a good rapporteur on the final shape of a proposal can therefore be quite large.
Rapporteur (derived from French) is used in international and European legal and political contexts to refer to a person appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue or a situation, and report back to that body.