Civitas Maxima celebrates its decade long partnership with the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Civitas Maxima celebrates its decade long partnership with the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights

Civitas Maxima is pleased to share that 2026 marks the 10-year anniversary of our partnership with the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (Geneva Academy). The Geneva Academy is an academic centre that, amongst other things, enables the next generation of lawyers to specialise in international humanitarian law, human rights and international criminal law via its specialised masters programmes.

Civitas Maxima welcomes academic interns from the Geneva Academy on a yearly basis, with this year marking the first time that our organisation has hosted four interns. This is due to both the high calibre of students from the Geneva Academy and the ever-growing need for more bright minds to be involved in the fight against impunity. The internship programme allows students to contribute to Civitas Maxima’s mission to support forgotten victims of international crimes and be a platform for victims to bring universal jurisdiction cases before domestic courts across various countries.

This notification is painfully timely. The funding crisis faced by the UN and other international non-governmental organisations, and recent attacks against the International Criminal Court has reduced the opportunities available for bright lawyers. This has made early-career skillset development a key issue in the fight against impunity for international crimes. Civitas Maxima is proud to be able to play a role in filling the gap in this space, and contribute to the development of the next generation of lawyers through our internship programme. We remain steadfast in our encouragement for the future generation, and career changers, to pursue their education and careers in this field.

Civitas Maxima’s Director, Alain Werner, shared: “Throughout the past ten years, the interns from the Geneva Academy have contributed greatly to our mission. Our partnership with the Geneva Academy has provided us with first-hand insight into the future generation of lawyers, enabling us to contribute to their training by providing them with a bridge between academia and practice. We look forward to our continued partnership with the Geneva Academy.”

Geneva Academy’s Head of Education, Dr Clotilde Pégorier, shared: “Over the past decade, the internship partnership between the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and Civitas Maxima has provided an invaluable platform for students to apply their academic learning to real-world contexts. It stands as a model of how academic institutions and practitioners can together strengthen the pursuit of justice and accountability.”