We use various third-party cookies to provide social media features and to analyze our traffic. Please use the options below to manage your cookie settings. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Please be aware, if you deny cookies, certain features of our website may not work.
This will apply to all services
Google Analytics
YouTube
Sandra Pointet/Geneva Academy
10 September 2019
Students of our LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights spent most of their summer working on their LLM papers: around 20 pages to discuss a specific issue in international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights in armed conflict.
They submitted their papers in August and will receive their grades by mid-September.
The LLM promotes academic excellence and independent critical thinking. One of its core outputs is an LLM paper written under the guidance of a Faculty member.
‘This paper gives students an opportunity to investigate a subject of special interest to them, develop their own critical thinking, and deepen their expertise through research and exchanges with experts’ stresses Marco Sassòli, Director of the Geneva Academy.
‘As the paper is quite short – around 20 pages – it also requires students to be able to address complex questions in a concise manner without oversimplifying them’ he adds.
‘Every year, we are positively surprised by the variety and relevance of the topics chosen by some of our students, as well as by the quality of their papers’ underlines Marco Sassòli.
‘It’s always a pleasure to see how students use what they’ve learned in class to discuss and analyse a specific issue and develop their own approach to it’ he adds.
To name but a few, LLM papers notably discussed the compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) through human rights mechanisms; the contribution of armed groups to the formation of customary IHL; new technologies and data protection in situations of armed conflict; lethal autonomous weapons systems and international criminal responsibility; non-state armed groups and the administration of justice; evaluation of the compatibility with IHL of self-defence in US operational law; or the extraterritorial scope of states parties’ obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Awarded every year during the Graduation Ceremony, the Best LLM Paper Prize distinguishes one student for a paper of exceptional academic quality.
The Henry Dunant Prize is awarded to an LLM graduating student for an original and didactical paper that deepens, strengthens and renews the ideals and commitment of Henry Dunant.
News
Geneva Academy
Our latest spot report explores how the targeting of water infrastructure is contributing to what is now considered the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, affecting 30 million people.
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.
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
Paolo Margari
This research aims at mainstreaming the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and the protection it affords in the work of the UN Human Rights Council, its Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review, as well as in the work of the UN General Assembly and UN treaty bodies.
Project
Shutterstock
This project will explore humanitarian consequences and protection needs caused by the digitalization of armed conflicts and the extent to which these needs are addressed by international law, especially international humanitarian law.
Publication
