News - The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

15 March 2022

Professor Marco Sassòli has been appointed on 15 March as one of three experts – along with Professor Wolfgang Benedek and Professor Veronika Bílková – on a mission to investigate violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) in Ukraine for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

This mission is conducted under the Moscow Mechanism and at the request of 45 participating States. The report by the three experts will have to be submitted within three weeks after the establishment of the mission.

‘I hope that we will able to make a first impartial assessment whether and to what extent IHL and IHRL have been violated in this armed conflict that has led to so much suffering and attention. I count on the understanding of the media that I cannot provide any information on the mission before the report is submitted to the OSCE’ explains Professor Sassòli.

UK in Austria

Webpage annoncing the mission to which Professor Marco Sassoli will participate

OSCE

Destroyed building in Marioupol, Ukraine

MSF

About Professor Sassòli

Professor Marco Sassòli is a renowned scholar in IHL and our former Director. He has been a Professor of International Law at the University of Geneva Law Faculty since 2004 and has been teaching IHL at the Geneva Academy – in our LLM in IHL and Human Rights – since that time.

From 1985 to 1997, he worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross, notably as Deputy Head of its Legal Division, Head of the ICRC delegations in Jordan and Syria and as Protection Coordinator for the former Yugoslavia.

Marco Sassòli has published widely on IHL, IHRL, international criminal law, the sources of international law, the responsibility of states and non-state actors and Swiss constitutional law.