Exciting Beginnings: 79 Students Embark on a New Academic Year

18 September 2023

The 79 students enrolled in our LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (LLM) and MAS in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law (MTJ) – 40 for the LLM and 39 for the MTJ – started their classes on 18 September after a busy and insightful orientation week.

Our 2023–2024 academic year welcomes a vibrant mix of students from diverse backgrounds, enriching the Geneva Academy community with their unique profiles.

‘It is a pleasure to meet and welcome our new students following a rigorous selection process. I am struck by the remarkable diversity within our student body, encompassing geographical, academic, and professional dimensions, a diversity that significantly enriches our programmes’ says our Head of Education Dr Clotilde Péorier.

LLM

MTJ

31 Scholarships: Fostering Excellence and Diversity

This academic year, we are excited to introduce several new optional courses available to students from both programmes. These courses, taught by leading scholars and practitioners, tackle contemporary human rights, transitional justice and IHL issues issues:

• International Cyber Security Law by Professor Marco Roscini
• Religions, Beliefs, and Human Rights by Ibrahim Salama and Michael Wiener

They complement a very large offer of optional courses with 11 courses on issues like humanitarian skills, gender and international crimes, the Islamic law of armed conflicts or enforced disappearances in international law.

‘Optional courses enable us to refresh our curriculum and explore, in addition to the fundamental core courses, pertinent issues that are indispensable for those aspiring to engage in the humanitarian, human rights and transitional justice fields’ explains Dr Pégorier.

A new core course on reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence has also been introduced in the MTJ curricula. Given by Professor Paola Gaeta, it will begin with a theoretical introduction to the concepts of reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence under international law, and will then discuss their implementation in transitional justice situations with a focus on some historical examples as well as more current initiatives.

Our commitment to student success extends beyond the classroom. Throughout the academic year, students from both programmes will have access to a range of professional development and career counselling activities. These include group sessions for employment advice and career planning, personalized counselling with our Coordinator of Professionalizing Activities, alumni networking opportunities, soft skills training and internships.

‘We aim to empower our students with the essential skills and profound insights needed to embark on successful journeys in the fields of humanitarian, human rights, and transitional justice. The internships on offer during the second semester via our extensive network of programme partners, provide our students the opportunity to acquire relevant professional experience as part of their respective programmes’ explains Gregory Pasche, Coordinator of Professionalizing Activities.