This course takes a practitioner’s perspective on how the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is implemented within the UN protection architecture, focusing on the persistent gap between legal obligations and political responses to atrocity crises. It examines how atrocity prevention functions in practice across the multilateral system: how responses are triggered, which tools are used, and where international action produces meaningful protection outcomes – or falls short.
Through in-depth case studies of Gaza, Myanmar, Syria, Venezuela, Sudan or Afghanistan, the course analyses how UN responses have shaped dynamics on the ground – whether by influencing the behaviour of perpetrators, contributing to accountability processes for victims, or prompting innovative forms of multilateral response. It also critically assesses where such engagement has had limited or no deterrent effect, and why.
The course maps the full lifecycle of atrocity prevention, from early warning to political decision-making in Geneva and New York – particularly within the UN Security Council – and onward to accountability processes. A core focus is the Geneva-based human rights system, including the Human Rights Council, OHCHR and UN investigative mechanisms, with attention to their role in early warning, documentation, and evidence-collection. It further examines the interaction between UN institutions, Member States, civil society, and affected communities.
A downloadable flyer is available here.
- Explain the structure and functioning of the UN protection architecture, including the roles of the Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council, as well as key tools such as human rights monitoring, fact-finding and investigative mechanisms, sanctions regimes and peacekeeping operations.
- Interpret how institutional and political processes shape responses to atrocity crises, with particular attention to decision-making in Geneva and New York, and assess the effectiveness of international responses, including their impact on perpetrator behaviour and accountability outcomes.
- Understand how various multilateral mechanisms, such as UN investigations into atrocity crimes, are established and operate in practice, and analyse how their findings influence political processes, protection strategies and accountability efforts.
- Evaluate structural and political constraints in multilateral responses to atrocity crises, including selective engagement and the uneven application of protection tools across different contexts.
- Examine how advocacy and engagement with the UN system operate in practice, including how civil society actors, human rights defenders, victim representatives and affected communities seek to mobilize UN responses and contribute to early warning, protection and accountability efforts.
Elisabeth Pramendorfer is an atrocity prevention expert with extensive experience advocating for populations at risk of atrocity crimes at the United Nations (UN). She is the Geneva Director at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, the world’s leading research and advocacy organization advancing the international norm of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) at the UN and beyond, working to prevent genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing worldwide.
Elisabeth represents the Global Centre at the Human Rights Council, where she has institutionalized and expanded the Centre’s work on atrocity prevention within the wider UN human rights system. She has spent the past decade designing and implementing advocacy strategies and working with senior government officials to mobilize multilateral action to prevent and respond to atrocity crises worldwide. She has also led the development of the Global Centre’s work with UN investigative mechanisms and oversees the Centre’s engagement with the Group of Friends of R2P – an intergovernmental group of more than 55 cross-regional UN Member States.
Elisabeth is the author of articles, book chapters, op-eds and commentaries on R2P and atrocity prevention and regularly speaks on multilateralism, human rights and related topics before parliaments, think-tanks, NGOs and government institutions. Since 2021, she has contributed as a guest lecturer at academic institutions worldwide, including New York Times Summer School, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, McGill University Canada, University of Geneva, Centre for War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark, Florida International University, as well as universities in Croatia, Venezuela and Ecuador.
She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Every Casualty Counts, a UK-based civil society organization supporting effective recording of casualties of armed violence worldwide. She holds an LLM in International Humanitarian Law from the Geneva Academy and degrees from Sciences Po, Paris, SOAS and King’s College London.
- Monday 24 August, 12:00 to 13:00 – Introduction
- Tuesday 25 August, 12:00 to 14:00
- Wednesday 26 August, 12:00 to 14:00
- Thursday 27 August, 12:00 to 14:00
- Friday 28 August, 12:00 to 14:00
- Monday 31 August, 12:00 to 14:00
- Tuesday 1 September, 12:00 to 14:00
- Wednesday 2 September, 12:00 to 14:00
Please send an email to digital.academy@geneva-academy.ch with a CV and a motivation letter letter expressing your interest in the specific course.
Selected applicants will receive a confirmation of acceptance. To secure their place, accepted participants are required to pay a non-refundable deposit of CHF 100.
Please note that this course is subject to a minimum of 10 participants. If this minimum is not reached two weeks prior to the start date, this course will not be delivered and all registered participants will receive a full refund of the deposit. Places are limited to 25 participants, and therefore early application is strongly encouraged.
CHF 950.
A discount of CHF 100 is available for students and alumni of the Academy, UNIGE, IHEID, and individuals who have previously participated in our trainings or educational activities.