Cécile Aptel is the Deputy Director of the UNICEF Global Office of Research and Foresight, and an expert in child and human rights, justice, and the governance of new technologies.
Her career spans humanitarian, human rights, peace and justice: before joining UNICEF, she served as the Deputy Director of UNIDIR; Director and acting Under-Secretary General at the IFRC; senior advisor to UN High Commissioners for Human Rights.
She also led the UN-OHCHR global work on rule of law and democracy and directed the establishment of the UN-IIIM on Syria. She founded the children and youth program at the International Center for Transitional Justice.
She has been a full-time professor at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, and visiting professor at Harvard, the Geneva Academy, and Oxford.
Earlier in her career, she worked in the UN international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
She also led international investigations, and participated in the creation of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and of the Special Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina. She holds a PhD in international law and has authored over 30 publications.
