Event information

10 October 2017, 18:15-19:45

Downloads

Flyer >

Opening Lecture of the Academic Year: The Political Participation of Refugees and Other Displaced Persons in their Country of Nationality and in the Host State

Event

Portrait of Professor Geoff Gilbert Portrait of Professor Geoff Gilbert

In this opening lecture, Professor Geoff Gilbert will discuss how, as conflict and repression end and states move towards a period of transition, those who have been displaced can participate in the restoration process.

What governs participation in the country of nationality by persons who are overseas? What are their rights to be included in the democratization and stabilisation process? How might the law of the host state affect participation? What role exists for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)? And what of those excluded from refugee status because of their ties to the rebel movement, when they may be the very ones who have provided an avenue for political dialogue during their displacement?

Geoff Gilbert is Professor of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the University of Essex and is currently on secondment to the UNHCR. He was Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Refugee Law from 2002 to 2015. He has written widely on international law and forced displacement, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and international human rights law.

Video

 

Opening Lecture of the Academic Year: The Political Participation of Refugees and Other Displaced Persons in their Country of Nationality and in the Host State

What governs participation in the country of nationality by persons who are overseas? What are their rights to be included in the democratization and stabilisation process? How might the law of the host state affect participation? What role exists for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)? And what of those excluded from refugee status because of their ties to the rebel movement, when they may be the very ones who have provided an avenue for political dialogue during their displacement?

In this opening lecture, Professor Geoff Gilbert discussed how, as conflict and repression end and states move towards a period of transition, those who have been displaced can participate in the restoration process.

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

Professor Marco Sassoli during an IHL class at the Geneva Academy News

Geneva Academy Professor presents to OSCE Member States Report on Violations of IHL in the Armed Conflict in Ukraine

13 April 2022

Professor Sassòli was in charge of the IHL part of the report that was presented on 13 April by the three experts to the OSCE Permanent Council. 

Read more

Eliska Mockova with colleagues from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Urkaine News

LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights: What our Alumni Say

27 January 2022

Eliška Mocková graduated from our LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in 2019 and currently works for the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, in one of its field offices.

Read more

Somalia, explosion of a bomb in the Mogadishu's market place. Short Course

The Classification of Armed Conflicts

Spring 2023

This short course, which can be followed in Geneva or online, provides an in-depth study of an emblematic example of the complexity of international humanitarian law and the challenges it raises: the classification of armed conflicts.

Read more

Syria, destroyed building and ambulance Short Course

Basic Principles of International Humanitarian Law

Fall 2022

This short course examines the sources of international humanitarian law and provides an introduction to its key principles and terminology.

Read more

A session of the UN Human Rights Committtee at Palais Wilson Project

Implementing International Humanitarian Law Through Human Rights Mechanisms

Completed in April 2019

This project examined how IHL could be more systematically, appropriately and correctly dealt with by the human rights mechanisms emanating from the UN Charter, as well as from universal and regional treaties.

Read more

A wheelchair completely destroyed after the bombing of a civilian area Project

Disability and Armed Conflict

Completed in May 2016

This project aimed to ensure better protection of and assistance for persons with disabilities in situations of armed conflict or its aftermath by identifying legal obligations to protect and assist persons with disabilities during conflict, and the policies and practices required to put these obligations into effect.

Read more

Cover of the Publication Publication

The Future Digital Battlefield and Challenges for Humanitarian Protection: A Primer

published on April 2022

Henning Lahmann

Read more

cover of the publication Publication

Towards Global Transitional Justice?

published on January 2022

Olivier de Frouville

Read more