Milena Costas

Milena Costas

Research Fellow

Areas of expertise

Counter-terrorism  /  States of Emergency  /  New Technologies  /  Human Rights  /  Right of Peaceful Assembly

Milena Costas is a Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy.

She is a human rights expert and law-practitioner. Since 2019 she is a member (independent expert) of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Advisory Committee. She is currently the rapporteur of the study on ‘the impact, opportunities and challenges of neurotechnology with regard to the promotion and protection of all human rights’ which will be submitted to the Human Rights Council in September 2024.

Holding a PhD in public international law from the University Complutense of Madrid, she is specialized in human rights and international humanitarian law. She has carried out research, and taught in several universities and academic institutions in Spain, Italy and Switzerland. In the period 2013-2015 she carried out research at the Geneva Academy in the framework of two projects related to the right to protest and autonomous weapons systems under international law.

Milena has worked as adviser at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also has provided technical support to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the International Labour Organization. She regularly collaborates as legal adviser with the Spanish Red Cross and teaches Human Rights Protection in the Master’s Programmes of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, the Autonomous University of Madrid and the University of Sassari.

Research Projects

Neutrotechology Project

Neurotechnology and Human Rights

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. 

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Publications

Cover Page of Research Brief

Between Science-Fact and Science-Fiction Innovation and Ethics in Neurotechnology

May 2024

Milena Costas, Timo Istace

Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

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Tecnología y desigualdad: la gobernanza tecnológica como nuevo paradigma de la seguridad internacional

Tecnología y desigualdad: la gobernanza tecnológica como nuevo paradigma de la seguridad internaciona

2022

Milena Costas

Revista de Estudios en Seguridad Internacional

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The Advisory Committee’s contribution to advancing the human rights agenda: achievements and perspectives

The Advisory Committee’s contribution to advancing the human rights agenda: achievements and perspectives

2021

Milena Costas

Multilateralism, human rights and diplomacy: a global perspective, University for Peace

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El enfoque de derechos humanos en las políticas de drogas: su impacto en las familias vulnerables y dependientes de cultivos ilegalizados

El enfoque de derechos humanos en las políticas de drogas: su impacto en las familias vulnerables y dependientes de cultivos ilegalizados

2020

Milena Costas

Ocasional Papers

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EU Counterterrorism Policy and Human Rights: Are we in the right track?

EU Counterterrorism Policy and Human Rights: Are we in the right track?

2019

Milena Costas

Routledge Handbook of EU Security Law and Policy

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