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
8 December 2020
Katja Schöberl graduated from our LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in 2008.
After a one-year traineeship within the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)’s Legal Division, she returned to the Geneva Academy in 2009 to work as a teaching assistant. In 2012, she took on a position as IHL Legal Adviser for the German Red Cross in Berlin, where she has been living and working since.
The LLM offered the most rigorous education in international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights in armed conflict, backed by the Geneva Academy’s founding institutions’ renewed commitment to a specialized programme in these areas of law. The depth and range of IHL training were deciding factors for my choice and had often been identified as outstanding qualities of this programme by IHL professionals I approached to seek advice.
The programme offers students the opportunity to strive for academic excellence, to be taught by leading experts, to gain valuable practical experience and to learn among a highly diverse group of students. I have followed with great interest and admiration how the LLM programme has flourished since we were enrolled as the Geneva Academy’s first cohort in 2007. The programme is today firmly anchored in what the Geneva Academy’s staff has been able to impressively build over the years: a place of outstanding teaching and research. The continuous development of the catalogue of optional courses is merely one indication of the Geneva Academy’s dedication to include the most relevant and topical issues in its teaching. The inclusion of internship opportunities, clinical legal work and pleadings into the LLM programme has enabled students to develop their practical skills even more strongly.
I was, and continue to be, deeply impressed with the teaching staff’s profound dedication to training young international lawyers. Professors, lecturers and teaching assistants generously shared their expertise in and experience with international law, including their remarkable achievements, professional setbacks, open questions as well as hopes and aspirations for international law. The didactical approach adopted within the LLM programme (inductive analyses, case-based methods, group work) fostered a dialogue in which diverse opinions, critical views and new proposals were always welcome.
The numerous discussions inside and outside the classroom, including at various apéros.
The programme has allowed me to start a career in IHL. It has provided me with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to work in a professional context dealing with IHL, such as the ICRC and the German Red Cross. It has also contributed significantly to my academic development and has allowed me to pursue a doctorate in IHL. Since graduation, the programme has continued to enrich my professional life. It has generated a community of IHL professionals whose work in and reflections about international law have a significant impact on my work. The Geneva Academy and its staff have created an extraordinary space for alumni and students of the programme to meet and I am always grateful for the possibility to reconnect with them at one of the Geneva Academy’s conferences and events.
I would, and regularly do, highly recommend the programme to any student looking for an intellectually challenging and truly rewarding post-graduate education in IHL.
News
Geneva Academy
The 88 students enrolled in our LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and MAS in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law started their respective programmes last week.
News
Geneva Academy
All LLM students – with the exception of one who pleaded online from Ethiopia – could plead at Villa Moynier in front of the jury composed of Professor Marco Sassòli and Lizaveta Tarasevich, an alumna of the Geneva Academy and Teaching Assistant at the University of Geneva.
Event
VOA, via Wikimedia Commons
This online IHL talk aims at shining light on some of the many legal, political and protection-related challenges stemming from the situation in Afghanistan.
Event
Tim Mossholder, Unsplash
The two-day Scientific Colloquium of the 2021 Human Rights Week will explore the different facets of discrimination and inequalities and will discuss their human rights impact in our contemporary world.
Short Course
UN Photo
This short course, which can be followed in Geneva or online, analyses the main international and regional norms governing the international protection of refugees. It notably examines the sources of international refugee law, including the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and their interaction with human rights law and international humanitarian law.
Short Course
Francisco Proner / Farpa/ CIDH
This short course, which can be followed in Geneva or online, aims at presenting the institutions and procedures in charge of the implementation of international human rights law.
Project
Shutterstock
This project will explore humanitarian consequences and protection needs caused by the digitalization of armed conflicts and the extent to which these needs are addressed by international law, especially international humanitarian law.
Project
Adam Cohn
This research project, aims via the drafting of a practitioners’ guide on human rights and countering corruption, to clarify the conceptual relationship between human rights, good governance and anticorruption, demonstrate the negative impact of corruption on human rights and provide guidance and make practical recommendations for effectively using the UN human rights system in anti-corruption efforts.
Publication
Geneva Academy
Publication
Geneva Academy
