Annyssa Bellal

DR. ANNYSSA BELLAL

Executive Director

Dr. Annyssa Bellal is Executive Director at the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform. Annyssa is responsible for the strategic direction of the Platform and its management, including the supervision of the team and convening the different committees. She supervises the platform workstream and serves as a stakeholder liaison. Annyssa is an international lawyer with more than 18 years of experience in the area of conflict studies, both at the academic and policy levels, with a particular expertise on the issue of armed non-state actors. She also worked as a legal adviser for the Swiss NGO Geneva Call, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs. In 2011, she acted as the Head of the International Humanitarian Customary Law Project at the International Committee of the Red Cross. She has engaged directly with armed non-state actors in the field, notably in Syria, Iraq and the DRC. In 2019, she was invited to brief the UN Security Council on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, along with the President of the ICRC and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs. Annyssa holds a Master of advanced studies in International Relations from the Geneva Graduate Institute, a Master of Law from the University of Geneva and a Ph.D in Public International Law (summa cum laude) from the Geneva Graduate Institute.