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.
Geneva Academy
To kick-start the activities of the 'IHL in Focus' project and refine its approach, a two-day expert meeting of representative practitioners and scholars from different disciplines was convened.
Geneva Academy
Our Research Fellow Dr Eugénie Duss answers our questions related to this update that follows the attacks carried out by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Israel’s subsequent Iron Sword operation.
ICRC / AI Generated
Co-hosted by the ICRC and the Geneva Academy, at the ICRC headquarters in Geneva, this event aims to disseminate key findings on the use of artificial intelligence in military decision making.
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.
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.
Geneva Academy
Geneva Academy