Course Overview

The course adopts a holistic approach to learning international human rights law, beginning from its normative foundations and emergence as a distinct field of international law to its contemporary status and challenges for the future. Given the introductory nature of this course, emphasis is placed throughout on idealism as well as realism, including an understanding of how international and domestic politics have influenced and continue to influence the field of international human rights law. On the normative side, participants will analyse the merits and demerits of categorising human rights under different labels and its effects on human rights promotion. They will look at case studies from around the world that expose the tensions between cultural relativism and universality of human rights, and will also look at the concepts of collective rights and rights of vulnerable persons. On the practical side, participants will be introduced to the most important mechanisms as well as challenges to the realization and promotion of human rights, including State compliance and judicial enforcement. Finally, the inter-play between nation-states and civil society will be scrutinised with a strong focus on NGO activism and the emerging challenges thereto

Course Objectives

• An understanding of the principles and institutions of international human rights law, including their origins, assumptions, contents, limits and potential;
• An improved ability to think analytically about the implementation and development of international human rights law and to apply this body of law in your own professional and national setting;
• Aan improved ability to conduct research on international human rights law; and;
• An institutional framework for cross-national professional collaboration and the exchange of information.
• Be able to conduct effective research in the field of international human rights law. 
• Be familiar with the major universal and regional systems of human rights law, their relationships to each other, and the legal value and authority of declarations, decisions, judgments and other materials generated by them.
• Be comfortable with general concepts of public international law, to the extent that they are relevant in the field of human rights. 
• Develop an awareness of the primary areas of concern within the field of international human rights law and other relevant branches of international law, and the ways in which human rights are promoted and protected.