The Genocide Convention prohibits genocide in time of peace and in time of war alike, yet most genocides of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have been committed in the course of armed conflict. The relationship between genocide and the conduct of warfare nonetheless remains conceptually unsettled and legally underexplored.
The project will investigate the neglected interplay between the prohibition of genocide and the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) on targeting and on humanitarian relief, asking whether conduct tolerated under IHL (such as incidental civilian deaths or restrictions on humanitarian assistance) may nonetheless amount to genocide when carried out with genocidal intent. It will examine the evidentiary and conceptual challenges of establishing genocidal intent in military operations, where violence against civilians may appear permitted by the laws of war. And it will address the accountability of actors beyond states and individuals: non-state armed groups and de facto entities, corporate and financial actors, media and social media platforms, and international organisations.
Alongside academic publications, the project will produce a podcast series, Genocide and War, and policy briefs for prosecutors, judges, states and NGOs engaged in accountability efforts.
About THE TEAM
Paola Gaeta will lead the project together with Ana Srovin Coralli and Agustina Becerra Vazquez, both PhD graduates of the Geneva Graduate Institute, and Sara Ewad, PhD student at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
About the principal investigator
Paola Gaeta is Professor of International Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute, where she has taught since 2015 and takes up the role of Director of Studies in September 2026. She is also Co-President of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, which she directed from 2024 to 2026 and, earlier, from 2011 to 2014.
She holds a PhD in international law from the European University Institute, where she worked under the supervision of Antonio Cassese, and began her career as a Legal Assistant in the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY. Before joining the Institute she was Full Professor of International Law at the University of Florence and Full Professor of International Criminal Law at the University of Geneva, and she has taught at Bocconi University, the College of Europe and the Hague Academy of International Law.
Her research addresses the international rules governing the repression of atrocity crimes and their relationship with the wider law of state responsibility: the dual responsibility of individuals and states for genocide, the immunities of state officials, the allocation of criminal jurisdiction among national and international courts, and the criminalisation of violations of international humanitarian law. She is the author of Cassese's International Law (with J. Viñuales and S. Zappalà, OUP, 3rd ed. 2020) and Cassese's International Criminal Law (OUP, 3rd ed. 2013), and has edited several leading commentaries, including The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (OUP, 2002), The UN Genocide Convention (OUP, 2009) and The 1949 Geneva Conventions (OUP, 2015), awarded the ASIL Certificate of Merit.
She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of International Criminal Justice, on whose board of editors she has served almost since its foundation. She is a founder of the Antonio Cassese Foundation for Justice, Peace and Humanity and sits on its board. She also co-hosts several podcast series bringing international law to a wider audience, among them In and Around War, Lethal Autonomous Weapons: 10 Things We Want to Know and Antonio Cassese: The Stubborn Sparrow.
Timeline: September 2026 - August 2030.
Funding organisation:
Banner image credit: UN Photo, UN7694621
