2025 Human Rights Masters Programme Study Tour to Geneva

A key component of our MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights is the Geneva Human Rights Study Tour, held during the summer session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), which allows our students to apply their learning in a practical setting. This year the Tour was led by Dr Karen Bennett, Lecturer in Securing Human Rights and Professor Kingsley Abbott, Director of the ICwS.

Between 16-20 June 2025, during the 59th session of the HRC, we had a busy week of engaging at the UN and human rights offices in Geneva. 

During the Tour we took part in observing interactive dialogues at the HRC and observing CEDAW Treaty Body sessions. We also took part in multiple side events at the HRC, which included presentations from states and civil society on the security and protection of women journalists; testimonies from Venezuelan families on the deportation of their family members from the USA to third countries; and human rights defenders advocating to protect LGBTI+ persons from the death penalty. 

Our Tour this year included meetings at Palais Wilson and other UN offices, including the UN Human Rights Inquiries Branch, responsible for Commissions of Inquiry and Fact Finding Missions for the OHCHR; meeting with a UN legal expert on refugees’ rights at the UNHCHR; and meeting with representatives at the Commonwealth Small States Office, which provides human rights advise and capacity building as part of the Permanent Delegation of the Commonwealth supporting small states at the UN.

Concurrent with our human rights study tour in Geneva, the ICWS co-organised an expert consultation and project launch for Guidelines on the Documentation and Investigation of Environmental Crimes, which our MA students had the opportunity to take part in. Working together with partners Trial International, Justice Rapid Response, SOURCE International and Physicians for Human Rights, the aim of the action is responding to calls by civil society for practical guidelines for investigating environmental crimes.

We also have a social dimensions to our Geneva study programme, with dinners co-organised and our annual picnic at the Bains des Paquis. These activities brought together our current MA and PHD students with former MA students who are now working in Geneva, and other friends of the Institute working as professionals in the field of human rights.