The United Nations Principles to Combat Impunity: A Commentary

The new book The Human Rights Council: A Practical Anatomy by Eric Tistounet, Chief of the Human Rights Council Branch at OHCHR, is the outcome of a six-months research fellowship carried out by the author at the Geneva Academy.

The Advisory Board of the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP) – composed of leading human rights experts and practitioners from different regions and backgrounds – provides guidance to the GHRP Executive Director regarding the Platform's strategy, priorities and activities.

This short course, which can be followed in Geneva or online, reviews the origins of international criminal law, its relationship with the international legal order including the UN Security Council and its coexistence with national justice institutions. The scope of international crimes – genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression – is considered alongside initiatives to expand or add to these categories.

This online short course will examine the protection afforded by international human rights law in these contexts, with a specific focus on the right to peaceful assembly – which is at the heart of such movements –, and the right to life – which is often violated during such transitional moments.

This project aims at mapping various existing accountability mechanisms, in the context of military interventions, through the lens of the requirements of a transitional justice process in order to identify possibilities and gaps.

This research aims at building a common understanding and vision as to how states and the relevant parts of the UN system can provide a concrete and practical framework to address human rights responsibilities of armed non-state actors.