We use various third-party cookies to provide social media features and to analyze our traffic. Please use the options below to manage your cookie settings. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Please be aware, if you deny cookies, certain features of our website may not work.
This will apply to all services
Google Analytics
YouTube
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré>
29 September 2022
Composed of thematically and geographically representative experts in the field of international humanitarian law (IHL), our new IHL Expert Pool (IHL-EP) aims to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner.
‘As IHL does not set out effective mechanisms to ensure compliance, victims of IHL violations increasingly engage other fora to facilitate implementation of IHL or obtain reparation. As a consequence, human rights mechanisms are increasingly engaging with IHL’ explains Dr Erica Harper, Head of Research and Policy Studies at the Geneva Academy.
‘Our IHL Expert Pool responds to this trend by addressing the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies’ she adds.
The IHL-EP provides expert advice to human rights mechanisms on a solicited and non-solicited basis.
Examples include bespoke technical guidance, the submission of amicus curiae briefs, preparation of language for reports by UN special rapporteurs, and inputs to the work of investigative mechanisms. The IHL-EP also delivers training for human rights bodies, courts and other fora.
The project is managed by our Head of Research and Policy Studies Dr Erica Harper and led by our Research Fellow Dr Francesco Romani.
Guilhem Vellut>
Along with 23 governments, the Geneva Academy – via its IHL-EP – requested to intervene as a third party in the proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) concerning the case of Ukraine v. Russia (X) (application no. 11055/22).
This inter-State case concerns the Ukrainian Government’s allegations of mass and gross human rights violations committed by the Russian Federation in its military operations on the territory of Ukraine since 24 February 2022.
‘In our request, we offered to provide an informed and balanced analysis of several, crucial issues raised by that case. These include the extra-territorial application of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the attribution of conduct and its interaction with the questions of establishing jurisdiction and classifying armed conflicts, the relationship between the ECHR and the international legal prohibition on the threat or use of force, and the interplay between the ECHR and IHL’ explains Dr Francesco Romani, Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy.
‘By participating in court proceedings such as this, and delivering rigorous and neutral advice on questions pertaining to the interplay between IHL and human rights law, our IHL-EP works to enhance the legal protection afforded victims of armed conflict’ underlines Dr Harper.
This request will now be examined by the Court. If leave to intervene is granted, the Geneva Academy and its IHL-EP will be assigned a time-limit to submit their intervention in writing. The latter document will then be forwarded to the parties to the case for consideration and reply.
The ultimate purpose of the intervention as a third party is to assist the Court to discharge its function in accordance with ‘the interests of the proper administration of justice’.
UNDP Ukraine
UNDP Ukraine
News
Adobe
Our research brief, Neurotechnology and Human Rights: An Audit of Risks, Regulatory Challenges, and Opportunities, examines the human rights implications of neurotechnology in both therapeutic and commercial applications.
News
Applications for the upcoming academic year of our Online Executive Master – MAS in International Law in Armed Conflict - are now open. They will remain open until 30 May 2025, with courses starting at the end of September 2025.
Event
Wikimedia
In this Geneva Academy Talk Judge Lətif Hüseynov will discuss the challenges of inter-State cases under the ECHR, especially amid rising conflict-related applications.
Training
Adobe
This training course will examine how the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights have been utilized to advance the concept of business respect for human rights throughout the UN system, the impact of the Guiding Principles on other international organizations, as well as the impact of standards and guidance developed by these different bodies.
Training
This training course will delve into the means and mechanisms through which national actors can best coordinate their human rights monitoring and implementation efforts, enabling them to strategically navigate the UN human rights system and use the various mechanisms available in their day-to-day work.
Project
ICRC
As a yearly publication, it keeps decision-makers, practitioners and scholars up-to-date with the latest trends and challenges in IHL implementation in over 100 armed conflicts worldwide – both international and non-international.
Project
The Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts project (RULAC) is a unique online portal that identifies and classifies all situations of armed violence that amount to an armed conflict under international humanitarian law (IHL). It is primarily a legal reference source for a broad audience, including non-specialists, interested in issues surrounding the classification of armed conflicts under IHL.
Publication
Geneva Academy
Publication
Geneva Academy
