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Students of our Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law (MTJ) – 2019-2020 academic year – successfully took up the challenge of addressing in around 20-pages contemporary transitional justice (TJ) issues and challenges.
‘The writing of a master’s paper forms an integral part of the programme. It allows students to further explore an issue of interest under the guidance of a Faculty member, develop their critical thinking concisely and convincingly, creatively apply the notions they have learned in class in relation to specific problems and cases, and to propose possible avenues for addressing gaps in theory or practice ’ explains Frank Haldemann, former Co-Director of the MTJ.
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Geneva Academy
While the writing of a master’s paper is in itself a lonely exercise, this was reinforced by the COVID–19 pandemic, as students could not meet in person with their peers and supervisors to exchange around their work.
‘Despite this additional layer of complexity, our students managed to submit highly innovative and original papers in time’ underlines Thomas Unger, former Co-Director of the programme.
MTJ students submitted their papers in August and are receiving their grades.
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Students’ papers address TJ issues in specific countries, as well as larger transitional justice questions and challenges.
‘The variety of country situations addressed by our students in their master’s papers – Armenia, Brazil, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, – shows that TJ processes or questions are at play in numerous countries and regions’ explains Thomas Unger.
Students also discussed contemporary issues and challenges like victims’ participation – including children – in TJ processes; reparative justice for violations of economic, social and cultural rights; gender-specific dimensions for TJ in post-conflict context; articulation and coherence between national TJ mechanisms and the International Criminal Court; TJ and collective memory; restitution of looted or stolen art and cultural assets during conflict or the colonial period; or TJ and missing persons.
‘These paper show that our students have a good grasp of theories and practices relevant to TJ and are now well equipped to take-up new responsibilities in the field’ underlines Frank Haldemann.
Enough Project
Awarded every year during the Graduation Ceremony, the Best MTJ Paper Prize is given to one student for a paper of exceptional academic quality.
Arthur Nguyen dao
Graduation hats in the air
Canva
Our new Working Paper by Professor Olivier de Frouville, based on his keynote speech at the Geneva Academy 2021 Graduation Ceremony, discusses the need for – and existing premises – a Global Transitional Justice Process.
Domenico Zipoli
From 23 to 24 March 2022, the Geneva Human Rights Platform conducted in Grenada, in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat, its second pilot of a UN treaty bodies (TBs) focused review – designed to discuss how countries implement specific recommendations issued by UN TBs between sessions.
Brill
This event marks the launch of our LLM alumna Jelena Plamenac’s award-winning book ‘Unravelling Unlawful Confinement in Contemporary Armed Conflicts’ published by Brill.
Markus Spiske, Unsplash
This online bilingual workshop, held in English and Italian, aims to raise awareness about the upcoming changes to the European Union (EU) seed marketing legislation and what this reform means in the Italian context.
Dustan Woodhouse, Unplash
This training course will explore the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as with their implementation and enforcement mechanisms; and provide practical insights into the different UN human rights mechanisms pertinent to advancing environmental issues and protecting environmental human rights defenders.
UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.
UN Photo
This research aims at taking stock of and contributing to a better understanding of the above-mentioned challenges to the principle of universality of human rights while also questioning their validity. It will identify relevant political and legal arguments and develop counter-narratives that could be instrumental to dealing with and/or overcoming the polarization of negotiations processes at the multilateral level.
Olivier Chamard/Geneva Academy