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

Thomas Unger

Co-Director of the Master in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law

Areas of expertise

International Human Rights Law / International Criminal Law / Transitional Justice / Functions of Criminal Justice in Post Conflict Situations / Multilateral Diplomacy / Truth-Seeking and Archives / Victim Participation

Thomas Unger is the Co-Director of the Master of Advanced Studies in Transitional Justice, Human Rights and the Rule of Law. He is the former Senior Adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence.

With more than 15 years of expertise in the field of transitional justice, he was previously a legal adviser on human rights and international humanitarian law to the Austrian Foreign Ministry, and a senior associate of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). He also worked as a legal system monitor with the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, and as a legal clerk with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Thomas Unger holds a degree in Law from the University of Vienna, an LLM in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law and a Master’s in Human Rights and Democratization from the European Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization (Venice).

Transitional Justice in Practice

This course combines in-depth case studies on transitional justice and lectures by transitional justice practitioners. It aims to deepen students’ knowledge of transitional justice challenges and provide them with the practical tools for ‘applied transitional justice work’.