Cécile Aptel
Executive Director
Professor Cécile Aptel, an expert in international justice, human rights, child rights, and humanitarian law, was appointed Executive Director of the Geneva Academy in February 2026. She is also a Professor of Practice of International Law at the Fletcher School, a Visiting Scientist at Harvard University, and a Member of the Editorial Board of the International Review of the Red Cross.
She brings decades of senior leadership and advisory experience across the United Nations, the Red Cross Movement, academia, and leading think tanks. Most recently, she led research and foresight at UNICEF and previously served as the Deputy Director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. She has headed major UN initiatives, including establishing the UN Mechanism on Syria (IIIM), and has worked as Chief in the UN Human Rights Office, Senior Adviser to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and to the Chief Prosecutor of the UN International Criminal Tribunals, as well as Director and Acting Under-Secretary-General at the International Federation of the Red Cross. She has also served on the Boards of the French Red Cross and the Foundation Croix-Rouge Française.
Earlier in her career, she provided strategic legal, judicial, and policy advice in Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, and North America, including at the UN international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and the International Commission for Lebanon. In addition to teaching at the Geneva Academy, the Fletcher School, and Harvard University, she has taught at the Geneva Graduate Institute, Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria, the University of Caen, and Oxford University.
Professor Aptel has authored more than 40 publications, including her 2023 Routledge book Atrocity Crimes, Children and International Criminal Courts: Killing Childhood. Her recent research focuses on international law and children, as well as on artificial intelligence and outer space.
She holds a PhD in law from the University of Geneva and master’s degrees from the College of Europe in Bruges and Trinity College Dublin.