News - The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

6 December 2021

The new podcast series ‘Antonio Cassese: The Stubborn Sparrow’ – hosted by our Faculty member and former Director Professor Paola Gaeta, Salvatore Zappalà, Giulia Pinzauti and our LLM alumnus Antonio Coco – discusses, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his passing, the work and legacy of Antonio Cassese, who was known to his friends as 'Nino'.

‘This podcast series will be of interest to young and older scholars, people who are starting a career in international organizations, as well as, more broadly, to all citizens of the world. In general, as Nino would have liked, the podcast speaks to all those who want to contribute to make the world a better place’ explains Professor Gaeta.

The five episodes of the series will tackle the impact of this pioneering international lawyer on international law and institutions on five selected issues: genocide, terrorism, torture, human rights in the European Union, and war crimes.

‘In this mini-podcast series, Salvatore Zappalà, Giulia Pinzauti, Antonio Coco, and I revisit some of Antonio Cassese's major contributions to international law as a practitioner, produced in decades of engagement with international institutions. We try to do it in the way we think he would have liked it most, namely through a critical analysis of his work. We thought this would be a good way to mark the 10th anniversary of his passing’ says Paola Gaeta.

Episode 0: The Knight and the Sparrow – which introduces the series and, through Cassese's voice, the title of the podcast – has just been released.

The following episodes will be released on the 9th of each month, starting on 9 December – with episode 1 on genocide –, which marks the anniversary of Antonio Cassese’s birth, as well as the 73rd anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Antonio Cassese taught courses and gave several lectures at the Geneva Academy, and the main conference room on the ground floor of Villa Moynier is named after him.

His voice in Episode 0 – which introduces the series and, through Cassese's voice, its title – is taken from the recording of such a lecture at the Geneva Academy where he told the story of the knight and the sparrow.