Our 2022 Annual Report

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, our experts, faculty, research and events have strived to shed light on the many legal issues and challenges related to the war. These expert views, public events, articles and interviews in the media are featured on a dedicated, regularly updated page on the Geneva Academy website.

We have also benefited, as of September 2022, from in-house expertise on Ukraine by hosting Dr Nataliia Hendel, Professor of International Law at the International Humanitarian University in Odesa, under the Scholars at Risk programme. Dr Hendel, who fled Ukraine, is now pursuing her research on the protection of the environment during armed conflicts, with a focus on Ukraine, at the Geneva Academy.

As our new Swiss Chair of International Humanitarian Law (Swiss IHL Chair), Marco Roscini – Professor of International Law at the University of Westminster and an expert on the international law of armed conflict, the use of force and international cybersecurity law – took up this position from Professor Robin Geiss who has been appointed Director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research by the UN Secretary-General.

As Swiss IHL Chair, Professor Roscini leads our research on the digitalization of armed conflict.

As of September 2022, our Executive Master in International Law in Armed Conflict has been delivered entirely online – a move prompted by a growing interest among humanitarian and human rights practitioners working in conflict-related contexts to upgrade their legal skills and follow the programme.

Designed for professionals with demanding jobs and responsibilities, this programme provides a solid legal background to address the multiple challenges that arise in humanitarian emergencies, human rights negotiations or criminal proceedings. An easy and interactive online platform allows participants to interact with professors and peers during classes, access all the course materials and readings and watch or rewatch a course recording.

With dedicated staff in our Student Office to develop professionalizing activities and career advice, students enrolled in our LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and Master of Advanced Studies in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law now benefit from an increased and more diverse offer of internships during the second semester that allows them to acquire unique first-hand professional experience with leading humanitarian, human rights and transitional justice actors.

Our new Coordinator of Professionalizing Activities also provides one-to-one career advice and counselling, group sessions that offer general advice on seeking employment and planning a career, exchanges with alumni about career paths in international organizations, NGOs, government or academia, access to job offers, as well as soft-skills training.

‘Our master’s programmes are recognized as world-leading professionalizing qualifications in their field. In my role as Professionalizing Activities Coordinator, I reinforce this position by further supporting, advising and coaching our students as they plan their careers and engage with the professional community. I notably coordinate the much valued ‘intra academic course’ internships, liaise with our international organization and NGO partners regarding these internships, provide career support and coaching, coordinate the alumni network and also set up some useful cross-functional skills training’ says Gregory Pasche.

As our new Head of Research and Policy Studies, Dr Harper leads our research and policy studies. Having worked in academia, UN agencies and NGOs in Timor Leste, Indonesia, the Philippines, Jordan, Ethiopia and Somalia, she brings to the position extensive expertise in international criminal law, international human rights law, IHL and post-conflict governance, as well as solid experience in policy and programming.

‘Our research agenda is evolving in an anticipatory manner, to respond to current challenges as well as future trends. In 2022. We invested resources in several rapidly evolving and complex areas, including how accountability processes are being impacted by the advent of open source intelligence and how emerging digital technologies are changing the nature of armed conflict’ explains Dr Harper.

Launched in 2022, the IHL Expert Pool (IHL-EP) – composed of thematically and geographically representative experts in the field of IHL – works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work by providing expert advice on priority IHL themes on a solicited and non-solicited basis.

During the year, the IHL-EP provided advice to six human rights bodies at both regional and international levels on critical IHL issues including conflict and the right to food, mercenary-related activities from the standpoint of IHL and the over-extension and misuse of IHL in counter-terrorism operations. As part of the activities of the IHL-EP, an amicus curiae brief has been filed in the case Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia pending before the European Court of Human Rights.

Launched in 2021, the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP) Training Hub took off in 2022 and conducted seven training courses on both the functioning of UN human rights mechanisms and topical human rights issues like the protection of the environment and freedom of opinion and expression.

Aimed at building capacity in the international human rights system, its use and impact on various policy areas, these courses took place in Geneva, online and in the field, and trained more than 100 participants from UN agencies, NGOs, national human rights institutions and governments.