This one-year full-time postgraduate degree (60 ECTS) is one of the most innovative and intellectually challenging programmes in international humanitarian law and human rights in armed conflict offered in Europe today. It focuses primarily on all rules applicable to armed conflicts, and their interaction and promotes both academic excellence and independent critical thinking.
This one-year postgraduate degree course provides advanced, comprehensive and practical training in international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL) in armed conflict and international criminal law, as well as the interplay between them.
Students gain access to a world-renowned faculty, benefit from direct connections with leading actors in the field like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and share ideas with other participants from different legal backgrounds and perspectives.
The programme allows students to tailor their studies according to their particular interests. Core courses provide a firm grounding in public international law, IHL, IHRL in armed conflict, international refugee law and international criminal law.
Optional courses allow students to deepen their expertise in a particular issue such as counter-terrorism, armed non-state actors, the rules governing the conduct of hostilities, the Islamic law of armed conflict or the work of international courts and tribunals.
Our LLM is also profoundly committed to developing the transferable skills necessary to succeed in the professional world and take up responsibilities in the humanitarian and human rights fields. To this end, internships with leading actors and participation in moot courts provide a solid exposure to practical work and allow students to expand their network.
Entry Requirements
- A full degree in law (received by June at the latest) enabling the applicant to sit the bar exam in the relevant country; or another degree if the applicant has a significant amount of training in public international law and courses related to our programme (e.g. international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law)
- A strong academic record
- A demonstrable interest in the subject matter of the programme (e.g. professional experience, internships, summer school, conferences attended, publications, etc.)
- A sound command of English. You must be able to show, via a recognized test, that your English is of a high enough standard to successfully engage with and complete your course at the Geneva Academy. This requirement does not apply if (1) your mother tongue is English; (2) you have taken an English-taught bachelor’s or master’s degree; (3) you have at least two years’ professional or academic experience in an English-speaking environment
- A passive knowledge of French is an asset as students might have to attend conferences and class presentations in French
Scholarship Coverage for LLM
We only provide full scholarships for citizens of non-western countries (full list of eligible countries available here).
We also provide every year a partial scholarship for EU citizens.
These scholarships are allocated through a highly competitive process based on criteria established by scholarships donors, and which notably include academic merit, extracurricular achievements and the candidate’s financial needs.
APPLICATION
Scholarship requests must be submitted with the candidate’s application.
When applying, you must choose between two tracks: application with scholarship (partial or full) or application without a scholarship.
If you apply to both tracks, your application will be considered under the non-scholarship track. Successful applicants who choose only the non-scholarship track cannot subsequently be considered for a scholarship.
FOR STUDENTS PRESELECTED FOR A SCHOLARSHIP
To secure their places within the programme, selected students with a scholarship will have to pay a non-refundable deposit of CHF 150.
Important Dates
September 2021 – August 2022
Study Mode Full-time
Application start 16 November 2020
Application end 26 February 2021
Application end (with scholarship) 29 January 2021
For more information, please visit Official Website.
