Annyssa Bellal

Dr Annyssa Bellal is a Senior Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy. She is also the Executive Coordinator, Geneva Peacebuilding Platform and a Senior Researcher at the Center on Conflicts, Development and Peacebuilding. Dr Bellal teaches at Sciences Po Paris, the University of Bern and at the Geneva Academy.

Her areas of expertise include public international law, IHL, international human rights law and armed non-state actors. She edited and authored the War Report 2014 (Oxford University Press, 2015) and 2016 (Geneva Academy) and is the author of several articles on various IHL and human rights law issues, including an award-winning article on ‘International Law and Armed Non-State Actors in Afghanistan’ (International Review of the Red Cross, 2011, SNIS Geneva Award 2011).

Dr Bellal formerly worked as a legal adviser for the Swiss NGO Geneva Call, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She was also an Assistant Professor in public international law at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway, Ireland.

Dr Bellal holds a PhD (summa cum laude) in Public International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and an LLM in Philosophy of Law from the University of Grenoble. She also holds a Master of Advanced Studies in International Relations and an MA in Law from the University of Geneva.

Dr Bellal was awarded several fellowships for her research, notably from McGill University (O’Brien Fellow in Residence), New York University (Hauser Global Law School Research Fellow) and the Graduate Institute of International Studies and Development (Albert Gallatin Research Fellow).