UN Photo/Pierre Albouy
Alongside New York, Geneva is the main centre of international governance. It is the European headquarters of the United Nations (UN) and the most active location in the world in multilateral diplomacy. Home to dozens of international organizations, more than 250 NGOs and 181 state representations, Geneva is also a human rights (HR) and humanitarian hub.
With the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the UN Human Rights Council, secretariats of all UN treaty bodies, leading human rights NGOs and renowned experts, the city offers an exceptional platform for HR diplomacy.
Key humanitarian actors work from Geneva to promote respect for international humanitarian law (IHL), ensure humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of armed conflict and address the humanitarian aspects of disarmament. These include the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Organization for Migration (IOM), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Médicins sans Frontières (MSF).
The Geneva Academy has developed close collaborations with Geneva-based HR and humanitarian actors and regularly welcomes their experts to events, policy discussions and taught sessions. Our research cooperates with them on many levels, advancing understanding and stimulating debate in policy-making institutions and government on IHL, HR protection, transitional justice or weapons law.
Thanks to these collaborations, our master’s programmes offer students numerous internship and networking opportunities, which allow them to gain practical experience and make useful contacts for their careers.
We are a leading education institution in international humanitarian law, human rights and transitional justice.
Our research examines issues that are under-explored, need clarification, or are unconventional, experimental or challenging.
Our publications address current issues and challenges and stimulate debates in the academic community and in policy-making institutions and governments.
We provide training and short courses for professionals who want to deepen their expertise in a specific issue.
During the latest UN Human Rights Council session, our Head of Research and Policy Studies Dr Erica Harper presented at a side event the situation in Afghanistan.
Geneva Academy
Discover the photo gallery of our 2023–2024 faculty members and their motivation to teach and share their expertise with our students.
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Our new Working Paper invites readers to embark on a critical journey, shedding light on the intricate dynamics between security and human rights and calls for us to consider the effectiveness of counterterrorism policies as a matter of human rights law, demonstrating the benefits of this approach in improving the rationality of the decision-making process.