Our Former Teaching Assistant Alessandra Spadaro Successfully Defended her PhD Thesis

7 June 2021

On Friday 4 June 2021, our former Teaching Assistant Alessandra Spadaro was awarded her PhD summa cum laude (avec félicitations du jury) from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies after defending her thesis before Professor Andrew Clapham (her supervisor), Professor Paola Gaeta, and Professor Sandesh Sivakumaran (from Cambridge University).

Focus on Detention by Armed Groups in Non-International Armed Conflicts

While most of the existing scholarship focuses only on security detention or internment by armed groups in non-international armed conflicts, Alessandra Spadaro’s thesis – titled ‘In the Hands of the Rebels: Detention by Armed Groups at the Limits of International Law’ – also studies the detentions of armed group members by their own group and criminal detentions for crimes related to the conflict as well as common crimes.

In her thesis, Alessandra Spadaro studies which international law standards must be respected in order to protect individuals from arbitrary deprivations of liberty and how to interpret and apply them, vis-à-vis armed groups. Her findings are distilled into ten basic principles that should guide any form of detention by armed groups and that are simultaneously realistic for armed groups to comply with and sufficiently protective from the perspective of the detained individuals.

‘I hope to publish my thesis as a monograph soon and to continue studying how armed groups and other non-state actors can comply with international law rules aimed at the protection of individuals and their fundamental rights, including in situations of armed conflict’ says Alessandra Spadaro.

Alessdandra Spadaro with two of her thesis' supervisors: Professors Andrew Clapham and Paola Gaeta

Accompanying our Students during Three Years

Alessandra Spadaro worked as a Teaching Assistant at the Geneva Academy from February 2018 to February 2021, with a short break in 2019 when she spent a semester conducting research at Harvard Law School.

She assisted international criminal law (ICL) courses in our LLM in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and taught bi-weekly tutorials to our LLM students on ICL. Alessandra also assisted courses on international humanitarian law, international human rights law and ICL in our Executive Master in International Law in Armed Conflict.

‘I am very grateful to Professors Robert Roth, Marco Sassòli and Gloria Gaggioli, under whose directorships I served, for giving me the opportunity to work at the Geneva Academy, which allowed me to fund my PhD and offered a great environment to grow as a researcher and teacher’ underlines Alessandra Spadaro.

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

Stavros Pantazopoulos News

Our New Visiting Fellow: Stavros Pantazopoulos

9 February 2024

Dr Stavros-Evdokimos Pantazopoulos will focus, during his fellowship at the Geneva Academy, on the protection of the environment in armed conflict and will notably address the initiative to criminalize conflict-related environmental harm, placing the emphasis on the crime of ecocide. 

Read more

A general view of participants during the 54nd session of the Human Rights Council News

New Paper Unlocks the Potential of the UN Human Rights Council in Global Conflict Prevention

3 November 2023

Our new policy brief Delivering the Right to Peace: Towards a Reinforced Role of the Human Rights Council in the UN's Peace and Security Framework delves into the possibilities of enhancing the Human Rights Council's involvement in the UN's peace and security functions.

Read more

Burning oil fields in Kuwait Event

The Prosecution of Ecocide and Other Environmental Crimes: State of the Law and Way(s) Forward

11 April 2024, 12:30-14:00

This IHL Talk will explore various issues related to the prosecution of ecocide and other environmental crimes.

Read more

22 March 2022, Maxime Jeoffroy Eli Mokom Gawaka (“Mr Mokom”) appeared before Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court ( Short Course

Accountability for Atrocity Crimes

17 April - 15 May 2024

This online short course examines and discusses the main criminal jurisdictions fostering individual legal accountability for international crimes.

Read more

Screenshot of the RULAC webpage Project

Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts (RULAC)

Started in May 2007

The Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts project (RULAC) is a unique online portal that identifies and classifies all situations of armed violence that amount to an armed conflict under international humanitarian law (IHL). It is primarily a legal reference source for a broad audience, including non-specialists, interested in issues surrounding the classification of armed conflicts under IHL.

Read more

Cover Page of Research Brief Publication

Environmental Human Rights as a Tool in Early Warning and Conflict Prevention The Role of the Human Rights Council

published on January 2024

Erica Harper, Baïna Ubushieva

Read more

Cover page of the publication Publication

Delivering the Right to Peace: Towards a Reinforced Role of the Human Rights Council in the UN's Peace and Security Framework

published on October 2023

Erica Harper, Adam Day

Read more