18 October 2021, 18:00-19:30
Event
ICRC
In this opening lecture of the 2021–2022 academic year, Dr Helen Durham, Director of International Law and Policy at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), will address the legal, operational and political imperative of the international community continuing to work towards the application and implementation of international humanitarian law (IHL).
Building on a range of current themes that an institution such as the ICRC needs to grapple with – from the use of new technologies in warfare to issues such as climate challenges, global responses to pandemics and increasing instances of urban warfare – the session will focus around the relevance and long-standing nature of key principles of IHL. Dr Durham’s own experience from being a field delegate to a Director within the ICRC will add a personal dimension to this presentation.
Dr Helen Durham is Director of International Law and Policy at the ICRC headquarters in Geneva. In her role, she oversees a large global network of international lawyers, policy advisers, armed forces delegates, weapons specialists, sociologists, diplomats, researchers and academic experts who work towards the respect of IHL.
Dr Durham regularly represents ICRC at venues such as the United Nations (UN) Security Council and in bilateral engagements with ministers, senior government officials and military decision-makers. In the last few years, she has led a range of IHL multilateral negotiations in Geneva and travelled widely to engage with authorities on matters relating to the protection of civilians during times of armed conflict and other situations of violence.
Admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and High Court of Australia, she has an Arts and Law degree with honours (Melbourne University) and a PhD (Melbourne University with research at New York) in international law, with a focus on IHL and international criminal law.
Dr Durham has widely published on IHL topics, in particular those relating to women and armed conflict. Previously she has been a legal adviser for ICRC in the Pacific Region, Head of Office for ICRC in Australia and held a range of roles in the Australian Red Cross.
She also held the post of Director of Research for the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law at Melbourne Law School where she also lectured in international law in the Master's Programme. Dr Durham has been inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women (2014), was awarded an Australian Centenary Peacewoman (2015) and has been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (2017).
This event is reserved for our incoming students.
Geneva Academy
Discover the photo gallery of our 2023–2024 faculty members and their motivation to teach and share their expertise with our students.
Geneva Academy
International lawyers, social scientists, security experts, and humanitarian practitioners discussed how research in social sciences could inform IHL experts and humanitarian practitioners to assess whether a certain degree of cooperation between organized armed groups – referred to as a ‘coalition’ – had relevance for armed conflict classification.
Adobe
This IHL Talk will explore various issues related to the prosecution of ecocide and other environmental crimes.
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.
ICRC
This online short course discusses the extent to which states may limit and/or derogate from their international human rights obligations in order to prevent and counter-terrorism and thus protect persons under their jurisdiction.
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.
Adobe Stock
This project addresses the human rights implications stemming from the development of neurotechnology for commercial, non-therapeutic ends, and is based on a partnership between the Geneva Academy, the Geneva University Neurocentre and the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee.
Geneva Academy
Geneva Academy