Christophe Golay

Christophe Golay

Senior Research Fellow

Areas of expertise

International Human Rights Law  /  Economic, Social and Cultural Rights  /  Extraterritoriality  /  Right to Food  /  Food Sustainability  /  Rights of Peasants  /  Non-Discrimination  /  UN Human Rights Mechanisms  /  Access to Justice  /  Human Rights and Development

Dr Christophe Golay is a Senior Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy.

He is also a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and an external member of the Council of the Interdisciplinary Institute for Ethics and Human Rights at the University of Fribourg. In 2013 he was a Visiting Fellow at the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism.

His expertise and publications relate to economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR), the right to food, access to justice for victims of human rights violations, human rights and development, the rights of peasants, the legal framework of humanitarian action, and the work of UN special procedures and treaty bodies.

Dr Golay is supervising the legal dimension of two research projects on the right to food in Bolivia, Cambodia, Ghana and Kenya, jointly funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Since 2009 Dr Golay has been providing legal advice to a number of stakeholders in relation to the negotiation, adoption and implementation of the UN declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas. From 2001 to 2008 he was Legal Adviser to the first UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food and undertook missions with the UN in Brazil, Guatemala, Bolivia, Cuba, Niger, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In that capacity, he participated in the definition of the right to food in international law and published two books, including his PhD dissertation, on the right to food and access to justice.

Dr Golay holds a PhD in International Relations (with a specialization in International Law) and a double Master’s in International Law and International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Research Projects

Plastic pollution on an Italian shore Project

Unpacking the Human Right to a Healthy Environment: Definition, Implementation and Impact

This research aims at mainstreaming the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and the protection it affords in the work of the UN Human Rights Council, its Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review, as well as in the work of the UN General Assembly and UN treaty bodies.

Read more >
Wheat field Project

The Right to Seeds in Europe

The project will notably identify the main opportunities and obstacles to protect the right to seeds in Europe. It will also discuss how to promote changes in European laws, policies and trade agreements to ensure that they do not infringe, but facilitate the realization of peasants’ right to seeds.

Read more >
Madagascar, Miarinarivo district. Women transplanting rice. Project

The Rights of Peasants

After having provided academic support to the negotiation of the UN Declaration for ten years, this research project focuses on the implementation of the UN Declaration on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas.

Read more >

Past projects

RESEARCH

Towards Food Sustainability: Reshaping the Coexistence of Different Food Systems in South America and Africa

Completed in 2022

Read more >

Publications

Cover of the publication

Briefing N° 22: The Right to Seeds in Africa

February 2023

Christophe Golay, Karine Peschard, Lulbahri Araya

The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Download > Download > Download >

Cover page of the manual

Briefing No°16: #ESCR AND #SDGs: Practical Manual on the Role of UN Human Rights Mechanisms in Monitoring the SDGs that Seek to Realize Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

July 2020

Christophe Golay

The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Download >

Cover page of the briefing

Briefing No°15: The Right to Seeds in Europe

April 2019

Christophe Golay

Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Download >

Cover of the Briefing

Briefing No°11: No One will be Left Behind - The Role of UN Human Rights Mechanisms in Monitoring the SDGs that Seek to Realize ESCR

January 2018

Christophe Golay

The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Download >