Geneva International Centre for Justice

Allgemeine Informationen

Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ) is an independent non-governmental organisation that operates under the Swiss Civil Code with the primary aim of enhancing human rights norms, access to justice and rule of law in developing regions around the world. This organisation was initially founded in 2009 by Dr Hans von Sponeck, Sabah Al-Mukhtar and Naji Haraj due to the immense devastation and massive war damages in the wake of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq since 2003. Today, however, it has expanded and operates in documenting human rights violations across many other nations including Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Malaysia.

GICJ primarily serves as an independent observer of human rights violations. We work closely with the United Nations in documenting these violations, raising global awareness, and enhancing access to justice for affected victims by examining all legal means possible.

The organisation also works closely with a coalition of other Swiss-based NGOs and international organisations, and share an extensive network with lawyers, academics, universities, research centres and human rights experts around the world. Our organisation has participated, without fail, in every UN Human Rights Council Session and Universal Periodic Review (UPR) since 2009. Our participation in this regard includes preparing and submitting reports on human rights violations, delivering oral statements during sessions, organizing side events, and writing urgent appeals to relevant representatives and special rapporteurs on extremely severe cases of human rights violations.

In addition to our work with the United Nations, we also work closely with various other organisations in attempting to mediate and resolve human rights conflicts through dialogue and negotiations, whenever and wherever possible.

Additionally, as experts in the human rights field, we often organize forums and workshops to educate people about human rights norms, violations and mechanisms to prevent them. We recognise the importance communicating the moral imperatives of human rights norms to citizens. Merely advancing legal protection on our own is insufficient. To this end, we conduct regular human rights training courses, internship programmes and provide valuable work placements for individuals who are interested in learning in-depth the mechanisms, procedures and functions of international human rights law. For more information, visit our website at http://www.gicj.org.