LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights: An Overview

This one-year full-time postgraduate degree (60 ECTS) is one of the most innovative and intellectually challenging programmes in international humanitarian law and human rights in armed conflict offered today. It focuses primarily on all rules applicable to armed conflicts, and their interaction and promotes both academic excellence and independent critical thinking.

Yemen, Aden, Kreiter. A civil rescue service volunteer takes a break from pulling out trapped people and dead bodies from beneath the rubble. Yemen, Aden, Kreiter. A civil rescue service volunteer takes a break from pulling out trapped people and dead bodies from beneath the rubble.

This one-year postgraduate degree course provides advanced, comprehensive and practical training in international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) in armed conflict and international criminal law, as well as the interplay between them.

Students gain access to a world-renowned faculty, benefit from direct connections with leading actors in the field like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and share ideas with other participants from different legal backgrounds and perspectives.

The programme allows students to tailor their studies according to their particular interests. Core courses provide a firm grounding in public international law, IHL, IHRL in armed conflict, international refugee law and international criminal law.

Optional courses allow students to deepen their expertise in a particular issue such as counter-terrorism, armed non-state actors, the rules governing the conduct of hostilities, the Islamic law of armed conflict or the work of international courts and tribunals.

Our LLM is also profoundly committed to developing the transferable skills necessary to succeed in the professional world and take up responsibilities in the humanitarian and human rights fields. To this end, internships with leading actors and participation in moot courts provide a solid exposure to practical work and allow students to expand their network.

Faculty

LLM students have the opportunity to be taught by leading academics in the fields of international humanitarian law and human rights.

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Internships

Our LLM students have the opportunity to acquire first-hand professional experience via internships with Geneva-based humanitarian and human rights actors

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Student Life

Our LLM is organized around intimate learning communities enabling close interaction between students and professors.

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Career Opportunities

Our objective is to produce graduates who will be leaders in the humanitarian, human rights and transitional justice fields.

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The LLM exceeded my expectations. It is a complete programme, which integrates various branches of international law and shows its implementation from different mindsets and angles.

Laura Baron-Mendoza

Legal Adviser at Lawyers Without Borders Canada and Senior Legal Adviser at Colombia Rural