New Composition of the Geneva Academy Board

18 September 2024

Christian Bovet, the new president of our board and honorary professor of law at the University of Geneva, was recently welcomed at Villa Moynier by the executive committee led by Director Paola Gaeta. Professor Bovet was the dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Geneva when the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights was founded and has closely followed its development ever since.

‘As a joint centre of the Geneva Graduate Institute and the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva, the Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights has become a leading institution in these fields of law that face constant challenges. I am honoured to serve as president of its board, with the firm intent to build on the institution’s renowned legacy,’ he said.

Christian Bovet is an honorary professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Geneva, where he served as dean from 2007 to 2012. Prior to joining the faculty in 1998, he practised law for several years as a partner in a Geneva business law firm. He received an LL.M. degree from Columbia Law School (New York) in 1988 and worked for over a year as a foreign associate with the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton. He was appointed to the Swiss telecommunications regulator (ComCom) in 1999 and served as its vice-chairman from 2005 to 2011. Between 2009 and 2011, he co-chaired the working group responsible for proposing amendments to Swiss competition law. He currently chairs the Société académique de Genève and was previously the president of the council of the Walther Hug Foundation, which annually rewards the best Swiss doctoral theses in law and periodically honours outstanding law professors. He sits on the editorial board of the international journal Concurrences and is the vice-chairman of the board of BNP Paribas (Switzerland) SA.

Our new president is accompanied by several new members of the Geneva Academy Board, with the current composition as follows:

Christian Bovet
President of the Board and Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Geneva

Vincent Chetail
Professor of International Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute

Madeline Garlick
Chief of the Protection Policy and Legal Advice Section, UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Maya Hertig Randall
Professor of Constitutional Law and Director of the Department of Public Law at the University of Geneva

Alexis Keller
Professor of Legal Philosophy and Head of the Department of Legal History at the University of Geneva Law Faculty

Nico Krisch
Professor of International Law and Head of the International Law Department
at the Geneva Graduate Institute

Etienne Kuster
Senior Adviser for Relations with Academic Circles, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

Andreas Ziegler
Professor of International Law at the University of Lausanne

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

Red Square News

New Research Brief Highlights Complexitites of Engaging Russia in a Fractured Multilateral Order

16 September 2024

In our latest research brief, Beyond Power and Politics: Engaging Russia in a Fractured Multilateral Order, examines the role of and pathways towards accountability for Russia’s human rights violations.

Read more

Students at a Geneva Academy event News

Join Our Online Meetings for Prospective Students

1 October 2024

We organize online information sessions for prospective students interested in our LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and Master in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law.

Read more

Portrait of Ambassador Jürg Lauber Event

Opening Lecture by Ambassador Jürg Lauber

19 February 2025, 18:00-21:00

The opening lecture of the 2025 Spring Semester will be given by Ambassador Jürg Lauber, President of the Human Rights Council and the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations.

Read more

Training

Human Rights and the Environment: Introducing Legal Regimes and Key Issues

1-8 September 2025

Participants in this training course will be introduced to the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as international environmental law and its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.

Read more

A general view of participants during of the 33nd ordinary session of the Human Rights Council. Training

The Universal Periodic Review and the UN Human Rights System: Raising the Bar on Accountability

10-14 November 2025

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.

Read more

A destroyed camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Khor Abeche, South Darfur, Project

Understanding the Relationship between Conflict, Security and the Human Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

Started in May 2023

This project will develop guidance to inform security, human rights and environmental debates on the linkages between environmental rights and conflict, and how their better management can serve as a tool in conflict prevention, resilience and early warning.

Read more

A session of the UN Human Rights Council Project

IHL Expert Pool

Started in January 2022

The IHL-EP works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner. By so doing, it aims to address the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies.

Read more

Cover Page of Research Brief Publication

War on Minorities’ Under the Guise of Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism

published on December 2024

Beatrice Meretti

Read more

Cover Page of Research Brief Publication

Navigating Pathways Toward Transitional Justice in Ukraine

published on October 2024

Robin van der Lugt, Chhime Namdol Sherpa

Read more