International Law and Human Rights
The Masters Programme in International Law provides students with a rigorous understanding of the role of law in today’s complex global society. Though international law has a long history, the last century has seen an impressive expansion of the role of law and legal institutions in international and transnational relations, involving not just states, but an increasing array of various types of actors. Our Masters Programme provides an introduction to this dynamic field as well as the opportunity to gain a solid and critical understanding of public international law and its various underpinnings. Aside from a focus on the foundational principles and values of the international legal system, various courses deal with the broad range of international institutions that play a pivotal role in the development of international law as well as in its implementation and enforcement. Our courses are taught by faculty with rich international experience, as well as by visiting professors from prestigious universities and key international organizations (UN, UNHCR, ICRC, etc.). Our faculty has long-standing experience in teaching both lawyers and students from different disciplines. The in-class experience offers an exciting and diverse environment, with students hailing from all over the world and a broad range of backgrounds.
The Master Programme begins with core foundational courses in the field, including public international law and human rights. Against this background, considerable attention will be given to the role of international law in conflict and peace, in particular to questions of collective security arrangements, international humanitarian law, and peacebuilding. Specific attention will be given to post-conflict situations and ‘transitional justice’ mechanisms, which call for complex international legal and policy arrangements, and are crucial for the implementation of international human rights standards. In particular, it will examine how international criminal law and the International Criminal Court (ICC) have become a crucial part of this framework. In addition, the Programme provides an understanding of the position and protection of the most vulnerable, in particular refugees and the stateless. Subsequently, students can choose to specialize in one of two different directions: international law and human rights or international law and the settlement of disputes.
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Resident Faculty
Juan M. Amaya-Castro (The Netherlands/Colombia)
Dr. Juan M. Amaya-Castro, Associate Professor and Head of the Dept. of International Law and Human Rights at the University for Peace, studied international legal studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and defended his Ph.D. dissertation (on Human Rights and the Critiques of the Public-Private Distinction) at the Free University of Amsterdam, where he was also a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the field of migration and law. He has taught at Utrecht University and at Erasmus University Rotterdam and was a visiting researcher and Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Law School. He has published on various aspects of international law and human rights and is currently also in the Board of Consultants of SUR—Revista Internacional de Derechos Humanos/International Journal on Human Rights and in the Editorial Board of Inter-American & European Human Rights Journal. He has been working at UPEACE on and off as visiting and as regular faculty since 2003.
Juan Carlos Sainz-Borgo (Venezuela)
Juan Carlos Sainz-Borgo is an Associate Professor of the Department of International Law and Human Rights at UPEACE. He is also Associate Professor of International Law at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas since 1998. Professor of Humanitarian International Law at the Universidad Sergio Arboleda in Bogota since 2009; he was Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Washington College of Law at the American University in 2008-2009. He served as Jurist to the Regional Delegation of Venezuela and the Caribbean of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Juan Carlos Sainz-Borgo has a Law Degree, Master in International Law and Doctorate (Cum Laude) from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas and a Master Degree from Oxford University, UK. He has published four books on international law and international relations and a numerous articles in different publications in the field.
Mihir Kanade (India)
Mihir Kanade is the Director of the UPEACE Human Rights Centre and an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Law and Human Rights at UPEACE. Prior to the present position, Mihir practiced for several years as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of India and the Bombay High Court, focusing on issues of fundamental human rights violations. He holds a LL.B. from Nagpur University and a Master’s degree in International Law and the Settlement of Disputes from UPEACE. He has served as a legal advisor to many human rights organizations in India and has represented them before different courts and tribunals in criminal, constitutional and labour cases. His principal area of academic research and study is Human Rights and Globalization.
Patrick Zahnd (Switzerland)
Doctorate in Public International Law and Political Science, Senior Manager of ICRC Operational and diplomatic delegations, senior manager of Operations at HQ, confirmed expert in Public International Law, IHL, Legal Adviser, Diplomatic Adviser, Political and Policy Adviser. Have taught PIL and IHL at the invitation of many major universities in all continents of the world over the past 30 years, including Latin America and the Caribbean and the U. Peace, guest professor in various universities of South Africa and Russia. Have developped programes of cooperation with many universities in the world in support of teaching and research in IHL with ICRC support.
In addition, various courses will be taught by Visiting Faculty, as well as by practioners, some of whom work with international organizations (UNHCR, ICRC, etc,).
Visiting Faculty
Gudmundur Eiriksson (Iceland)
Gudmundur Eiriksson (LL.B King’s College, University of London; LL.M Columbia University) is currently Ambassador of Iceland to India. Ambassador Eiriksson served as a Law of the Sea Officer in the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the Law of the Sea from 1974 to 1976 and as a Special Consultant at the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea in 1977. He joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Iceland in 1977, with the rank of Ambassador since 1988, and served as Assistant Legal Adviser (1977-1980), Legal Adviser (1980-1996), Ambassador to Canada, Nicaragua, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru (2003-2005) and Ambassador to South Africa (2008-2009). He was appointed as the first Chairman of the Icelandic National Committee on International Humanitarian Law (2008). He was Director of International Law and Human Rights Studies and Dean for Cooperative Programmes at the University for Peace in Costa Rica from 2001 to 2003 and Professor and Head of the Department of International Law and Human Rights from 2005 to 2008. He served as Legal Adviser to the University’s Council from 2004-2008. He has served as a Judge on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (1996-2002) and President of the Chamber for Fisheries Disputes (1999-2002). He is also a former member of the International Law Commission (1987-1996). He is a member of the Panel of Conciliators and Arbitrators, Center for Arbitrations, Mediation and Conciliation, Dakar, the Panel of Conciliators and Panel of Arbitrators, International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, Washington, and the International Council of Environmental Law, Bonn. He is a Member of the Editorial Board of the Inter-American & European Human Rights Journal/ Revista Interamericana & Europea de Derechos Humanos and of the Advisory Board of the Nordic Journal of International Law.
Keiichiro Okimoto (Japan)
Member of the Office of the Legal Counsel, Office of Legal Affairs, Secretariat of the United Nations. Previously a member of the Treaty Section of the Office of Legal Affairs. Formerly a legal adviser and a delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Philippines, and Rwanda. LLM, London School of Economics and Political Science; PhD, University of Cambridge. Areas of expertise are the law of international organisations, international humanitarian law, international law regulating the use of force, and the law of treaties.
Olger Gonzalez (Costa Rica)
Olger I. González Espinoza. Costarrican. Currently, he is Staff Legal Officer at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where he has worked for eight years in various positions. He currently coordinates one of the six working groups of the Court’s permanent Registry. Olger completed a Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation (E.MA. European Master) in Venice and Strasbourg, a diploma on transitional justice, human rights and democratisation at the University of Chile and earned his law degree from the University of Costa Rica. He has followed various human rights specialized courses, completed a Professional Visit to the European Court of Human Rights (2004) and participated in an OAS electoral observation mission (Guatemala, 2007). He has lectured on the Inter-American system issues in several institutions, both in Costa Rica and abroad, such as the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (San José), the University for Peace (San José), McGill University (Montréal, Canada), Universidade do Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil), Universidad José Simeón Cañas (El Salvador), as well as in several fora to public servants, NGOs and national institutions.
Pia Carazo (Costa Rica)
María Pía Carazo Ortiz (Costa Rica) has a Law degree from the University of Costa Rica (1996) and an LL.M. degree from the University of Heidelberg, Germany (1999). She is currently completing her Ph.D., also at the University of Heidelberg. Her areas of research include fundamental issues of Public International Law, Refugee Law, International Criminal Law, Transitional Justice, Human Rights (with an emphasis on regional protection systems) and Comparative Legal Studies (specially of Latin America, Spain, Portugal and Germany). Among her previous work experience she worked as a junior research fellow at Max-Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany. She has also lectured and taught at different institutions, including the University of Bonn, Germany.