Implementation and Accountability

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.

OUR PROJECTS

Past projects

RESEARCH

The Universality of Human Rights: Developing Narratives to Help Overcome Polarization

Completed in 2022

Read more >

RESEARCH

A Practitioners' Guide on Human Rights and Countering Corruption

Completed in 2021

Read more >

RESEARCH

Implementing International Humanitarian Law Through Human Rights Mechanisms

Completed in 2021

Read more >

RESEARCH

International Humanitarian Law and the United Nations Security Council

Completed in 2021

Read more >

RESEARCH

The Role of National Human Rights Systems in the Implementation of International Human Rights Standards and Recommendations

Completed in 2021

Read more >

RESEARCH

Disability and Armed Conflict

Completed in 2021

Read more >

RESEARCH

INVESTIGATING IN SITUATIONS OF ARMED CONFLICT: Law, Policy and Good Practice

Completed in 2019

Read more >

RESEARCH

Modes of Liability for International Crimes

Completed in 2019

Read more >

RESEARCH

The United Nations Principles to Combat Impunity: A Commentary

Completed in 2018

Read more >

Related News and Events

The European Court of Human Rights Building in Strasbourg, France News

Our Third-Party Intervention in Ukraine and the Netherland v. Russia

30 May 2023

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.

Read more >

Map of the RULAC online portal with the pop-up window on the non-international armed conflicts in Sudan News

RULAC Classifies a New Non-International Armed Conflict in Sudan

2 May 2023

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.

Read more >

Destroyed buildings in Yemen News

From the European Court of Human Rights to UN Human Rights Mechanisms: A Productive Start for the IHL Expert Pool

27 April 2023

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.

Read more >