Career
He is also a former director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights and of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. Kjærum obtained his degree in law from Aarhus University in 1984. He was the Head of the Danish Refugee Asylum Department from 1984–1991, and in 1991 he became director of the Danish "Centre for Human Rights".
When the Centre closed in 2002, Kjærum became director of the newly established Institute for Human Rights at the Danish Centre for International Studies and Human Rights, where he worked until May 2008.
In March 2008 he was appointed director of the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), taking up the post in June that year. In May 2013, the FRA Management Board extended his contract as Director of the Agency for another 3 years, with effect from 1 June 2013.
At the end of March 2015, Kjærum left the FRA to become head of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund, Sweden.