Professor Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Chair of Human Rights at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, joined the School on 1 April as Professor of International Law.

Professor Melzer has served for 12 years with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as a Legal Adviser and Deputy Head of Delegation in various conflict zones, as well as at the ICRC’s headquarters in Geneva.

He previously held the role of Research Director of the Competence Centre for Human Rights at the University of Zürich, as well as Senior Programme Advisor and Senior Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and Swiss Chair for International Humanitarian Law at the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.

His advisory work has included mandates from the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss Military Academy and other military training institutions, the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, the International Telecommunication Union, the German Bundestag and the European Union Parliament.

Professor Melzer’s areas of particular expertise include targeting and the use of force, cyber-conflict and the regulation of private military and security companies.  We are delighted to welcome him to the School.

Read the APT’s (Association for the Prevention of Torture) interview with Professor Melzer: http://www.apt.ch/en/blog/meet-nils-melzer-the-next-un-special-rapporteur-on-torture/

First published: 12 April 2017

<< April Newsletter