Felix Kirchmeier Named Executive Director of the Geneva Human Rights Platform

Portrait of Felix Kirchmeier Portrait of Felix Kirchmeier

2 September 2019

Felix Kirchmeier has been named Executive Director of the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP), a new project of the Geneva Academy. He takes up this new role in addition to his position as Manager of Policy Studies at the Geneva Academy.

As GHRP Executive Director, he will notably lead the development of this new platform to anchor it in international Geneva. This includes liaising with diplomatic missions, United Nations (UN) experts, civil society actors and academia, identifying human rights issues needing coordination and a multi-stakeholder approach, hosting expert meetings and public conferences, including the flagship annual conference of the GHRP.

‘I look forward to contributing, via this platform, to constructive and impactful discussions on the work and functioning of Geneva-based human rights mechanisms and bodies and the challenges they face’ stresses Felix Kirchmeier.

Current Focus

‘At the moment, we will focus on the 2020 Review of the UN Treaty Bodies’ he explains.

This topic is at the origins of the GHRP, as the Geneva Academy led a global academic process to gather input to this important UN process.

‘We are now in the phase of introducing the recommendations that came out of this process into the intergovernmental debate at the UN General Assembly’.

‘Besides this, we will also look at the way Geneva-based UN human rights bodies weigh in on global debates such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), climate change or anti-corruption efforts. During the second half of 2020, we plan to look into the connectivity of the Geneva-based human rights system with regional human rights systems’ he adds.

About the Geneva Human Rights Platform

The Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP) provides a neutral and dynamic forum of interaction in Geneva for all stakeholders in the field of human rights to debate topical issues and challenges related to the functioning of the Geneva-based human rights system. Relying on academic research and findings, it works to enable various actors to be better connected, break silos, and, hence, advance human rights.

As a ‘Mechanisms Lab’, the GHRP supports the international community to engineer solutions to ensure the sustainable functioning of the Geneva-based human rights mechanisms and bodies, allowing them to address human rights challenges effectively.

‘The Geneva Human Rights Platform is an innovative tool, open to all actors in Geneva and beyond, to genuinely address today’s major human rights challenges. As an academic institution, the Geneva Academy is the perfect entity to coordinate such project’ explains Marco Sassòli, Director of the Geneva Academy.

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

Geneva Academy Briefing No.25 News

New Academy Briefing Calls for Stronger Engagement of Local and Regional Governments in Human Rights and SDG Monitoring

11 March 2025

The Geneva Academy’s latest publication explores how cities, municipalities, and regional authorities are becoming key players in global human rights governance.

Read more

GHRP Annual Conference 2024 News

GHRP Annual Conference 2024 Strengthens Connectivity in a Pressured Human Rights System

25 November 2024

The 2024 Annual Conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP), held on 5 November at Maison de la Paix, focused on the theme Human Rights System Under Pressure: A Reason to Expand Connectivity.

Read more

Training

Human Rights and the Environment: Introducing Legal Regimes and Key Issues

1-8 September 2025

Participants in this training course will be introduced to the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights, as well as international environmental law and its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.

Read more

Project

Follow-up Review Pilot Series

Started in November 2021

Read more

Project

The Lake Room Initiative (Space for Dialogue)

Started in February 2024

Read more

Cover of the publication Publication

Briefing N° 25: Localizing Multilateralism

published on March 2025

Domenico Zipoli, Ludovica Chiussi Curzi, Kamelia Kemileva

Read more