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Geneva Academy
2 September 2019
Felix Kirchmeier has been named Executive Director of the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP), a new project of the Geneva Academy. He takes up this new role in addition to his position as Manager of Policy Studies at the Geneva Academy.
As GHRP Executive Director, he will notably lead the development of this new platform to anchor it in international Geneva. This includes liaising with diplomatic missions, United Nations (UN) experts, civil society actors and academia, identifying human rights issues needing coordination and a multi-stakeholder approach, hosting expert meetings and public conferences, including the flagship annual conference of the GHRP.
‘I look forward to contributing, via this platform, to constructive and impactful discussions on the work and functioning of Geneva-based human rights mechanisms and bodies and the challenges they face’ stresses Felix Kirchmeier.
‘At the moment, we will focus on the 2020 Review of the UN Treaty Bodies’ he explains.
This topic is at the origins of the GHRP, as the Geneva Academy led a global academic process to gather input to this important UN process.
‘We are now in the phase of introducing the recommendations that came out of this process into the intergovernmental debate at the UN General Assembly’.
‘Besides this, we will also look at the way Geneva-based UN human rights bodies weigh in on global debates such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change or anti-corruption efforts. During the second half of 2020, we plan to look into the connectivity of the Geneva-based human rights system with regional human rights systems’ he adds.
The Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP) provides a neutral and dynamic forum of interaction in Geneva for all stakeholders in the field of human rights to debate topical issues and challenges related to the functioning of the Geneva-based human rights system. Relying on academic research and findings, it works to enable various actors to be better connected, break silos, and, hence, advance human rights.
As a ‘Mechanisms Lab’, the GHRP supports the international community to engineer solutions to ensure the sustainable functioning of the Geneva-based human rights mechanisms and bodies, allowing them to address human rights challenges effectively.
‘The Geneva Human Rights Platform is an innovative tool, open to all actors in Geneva and beyond, to genuinely address today’s major human rights challenges. As an academic institution, the Geneva Academy is the perfect entity to coordinate such project’ explains Marco Sassòli, Director of the Geneva Academy.
News
The 2025 Latsis Symposium on Science for Global Development and Humanitarian Action, organized by ETH for Development, gave prominent space to human rights issues.
News
FORTAJUS-DH
Via its DHRTTDs Directory, the Geneva Human Rights Platform provides a comprehensive list and description of such key tools and databases. But how to navigate them? Which tool should be used for what, and by whom? This interview helps us understand better the specificities of the current highlight of the directory: FORTAJUS-DH – Human Rights Monitoring System
Event
Un Flickr
This side event will examine how LRGs can be better recognized and empowered as key human rights actors, building on recent Human Rights Council resolutions.
Training
UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.
Project
Adobe
To unpack the challenges raised by artificial intelligence, this project will target two emerging and under-researched areas: digital military technologies and neurotechnology.
Project
Olivier Chamard / Geneva Academy
The Treaty Body Members’ Platform connects experts in UN treaty bodies with each other as well as with Geneva-based practitioners, academics and diplomats to share expertise, exchange views on topical questions and develop synergies.
Publication
Publication
Geneva Academy
