15 December 2023
To mark the 75th anniversary of the Genocide Convention and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American Society of International Law and the Ukrainian Association of International Law invited international and Ukrainian lawyers in Lviv, Ukraine. The purpose of this summit was to contemplate these significant milestones and explore their contemporary relevance in fostering tangible actions for human rights. Given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, the discussions particularly emphasized strategies for optimizing existing compliance and accountability mechanisms to facilitate access to justice and redress in this specific context.
Our two Researcher Fellows Dr Jonathan Andrew and Dr Nataliia Hendel participated in this major summit on behalf of the Geneva Academy and shared their insights from research on how the international rules protecting the most vulnerable in times of war and peace are implemented and respected.
‘Our participation provided an opportunity to exchange with international and Ukrainian lawyers about accountability prospects and avenues related to the armed conflict in Ukraine and lessons learned from other contexts’ explains Dr Andrew.
‘It was also important to show our solidarity with Ukrainian lawyers and our colleague Dr Hendel – hosted at the Geneva Academy under the Programme Scholars at Risk and a leading Ukrainian IHL expert – who played a key role in the organization of this summit’ he adds.
First page of the summit's programme
Dr Nataliia Hendel co-chaired a discussion on 'Filtration, Forcible Transfer, and Mass Scale Arbitrary Detention' which examined how international legal and institutional frameworks can be mobilized to hold perpetrators accountable for forcible transfers of Ukrainians including vulnerable groups, such as children, older people, and people with disabilities.
She also moderated the plenary session titled 'Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide at 75: Never Again’, in which the panel of experts discussed the origins of the concept of “genocide” and how Western discourse may have adversely influenced foreign policies in the post-Soviet era. The panel’s debate also highlighted the status of Ukraine’s current Genocide Convention claims before the International Court of Justice and discussed how the ongoing conflict had witnessed atrocities that cemented a developing concept of “ecocide” of the country’s natural environment.
In the roundtable discussion on 'Law and Development in Ukraine’, Dr Jonathan Andrew provided insights from his work on emerging technologies and human rights, stressing the importance of implementing a forward-looking, achievable strategy as Ukraine looks to leverage its particular strengths and capabilities in its dynamic IT industry. His intervention also focused on the need to evaluate progress made to date in developing public administration and civic participation using new technologies and how, post-conflict, online platforms could be scaled to benefit a wider range of public services across the nation in areas such as education, healthcare and employment - emphasising how Ukraine has led this development in many areas.
ICRC
Our latest research brief, 'Navigating Pathways Toward Transitional Justice in Ukraine' examines the initiatives currently unfolding in Ukraine and assesses how they can lead to a holistic transitional justice process.
Geneva Academy
The Geneva Academy has published the first spot report from the 'IHL in Focus' research project, ‘Food Insecurity in Armed Conflict and the Use of Siege-like Tactics.’
ICRC
This IHL Talk will explore the intersection of armed conflict and food insecurity, through the lens of international humanitarian and human rights law.
ICRC
This online short course discusses the protection offered by international humanitarian law (IHL) in non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) and addresses some problems and controversies specific to IHL of NIACs, including the difficulty to ensure the respect of IHL by armed non-state actors.
ICRC
This online short course provides an overview of the content and evolution of the rules governing the use of unilateral force in international law, including military intervention on humanitarian grounds and the fight against international terrorism. It focuses on the practice of states and international organizations.
ICRC
As a yearly publication, it keeps decision-makers, practitioners and scholars up-to-date with the latest trends and challenges in IHL implementation in over 100 armed conflicts worldwide – both international and non-international.
UN Photo/Violaine Martin
The IHL-EP works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner. By so doing, it aims to address the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies.
Geneva Academy ICRC