How to ensure that international rules protecting the most vulnerable in times of war and peace are implemented and respected? Are the existing mechanisms to ensure monitoring and implementation working? Do they provide redress and accountability for the victims? What is lacking in today’s legal and policy framework and what are the challenges?
Although different in substance and varying in terms of compliance mechanisms, all international law frameworks – international humanitarian law (IHL), international human rights law, international criminal law, transitional justice – raise challenges in terms of implementation and accountability.
The proliferation of international, regional and domestic human rights standards has led to a multitude of actors and procedures dedicated to their implementation. In turn, this has crowded existing regulatory regimes. For IHL on the other hand, dedicated monitoring mechanisms are rare and many are either not used or otherwise ineffective. International criminal law courts and tribunals provide partial solutions as they focus on individual criminal responsibility. Our research in this domain aims to accompany existing mechanisms and their stakeholders, ongoing policy discussions, negotiations, reforms and new developments in order to ensure the ongoing relevance of the international legal framework for the most vulnerable, along with accountability and redress for victims.
UN Photo
RESEARCHCompleted in 2022
Adam Cohn
RESEARCHCCPR Centre
RESEARCHCompleted in 2021
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
RESEARCHCompleted in 2021
Cámara de Diputadas y Diputados de Chile
RESEARCHCompleted in 2021
Medical Aid for Palestinians / Ezz Al Zanoon
RESEARCHICRC
RESEARCHCompleted in 2019
ICC-CPI
RESEARCHICRC
RESEARCHAdobe
The Geneva Academy has been granted leave by the Court to intervene as a third party in this case – along with 26 governments – and submitted its third-party intervention on 28 April 2023.
Geneva Academy
In addition to the ongoing non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) that oppose the Sudanese armed forces to a number of non-state armed groups in the country, our RULAC online portal just classified a parallel NIAC between Sudan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Hamadan.
Adobe
Our new IHL Expert Pool began to position itself as a flexible tool that human rights mechanisms can rely on to increase their international humanitarian law (IHL) knowledge and to apply IHL in their work.