Human Rights: Few other concepts — legal, political or moral — can compete with ‘human rights’ as an emblem of modernity, good governance, and globalisation. Its universal nature with reference to the dignity of every human being brings forward dreams of freedom as well as worries about foreign influence. It refers to actually existing international law and associated legal and political mechanisms as well as processes of far-reaching social and cultural change. This programme offers courses in human rights in both theory and practice from legal, historical, philosophical, political and social science-based perspectives.
Knowledge
The programme is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. After having completed the required number of courses and written a master thesis, students will have acquired advanced knowledge about
- human rights as a branch of public international law, and relevant juridical mechanisms at global as well as regional levels,
- human rights as an object of study in history, philosophy and the social sciences, as well as a practical reality in national and international politics,
- different forms of promoting and implementing human rights, domestically as well as on the international level
- the role of human rights in contemporary issues relating to terrorism, religion, ethnicity, gender and development
- scholarly values such as transparency, impartiality, clarity, reliance and the importance of sound reasoning and empirical inference
Skills
The programme enables students to take an analytic and critical stance and deal with questions of how human rights affect social and political processes. At the end of the programme you will be able to
- search for, identify and assess primary sources as well scholarly literature about human rights
- identify, contextualise and use information about the human rights situation in a given country,
- critically appraise source material, including cases from human rights committees and tribunals and reports and summary records from treaty bodies
- analyse a country’s situation or an international situation in terms of human rights and formulate human rights-based initiatives and policies
- promote human rights through legal as well as non-legal means
- participate in legal, political and other debates involving human rights in a knowledgeable and constructive way
General competence
The programme allows students with a bachelor’s degree, prospective professionals and scholars to develop expertise in the field of human rights — or in a particular, a specialised area within the field — and it enables human rights practitioners to widen their theoretical hold on the human rights system and its historical and philosophical underpinnings.
Having completed this master`s programme, you will be able to
- work independently and carry out a professional and original work in the field of human rights, in NGOs, international organisations, ministries and state agencies that address human rights
- work in conjunction with human rights specialists and other scholars in expanding knowledge about human rights as well as promoting respect for the values they embody and symbolise
- communicate your acquired skills in the field of human rights through teaching as well as legal action and policy-making; and
- pursue an academic career in human rights
Target group
The programme allows students with a bachelor’s degree, prospective professionals and scholars to develop expertise in the field of human rights — or in a particular, specialised area within that field — and it enables human rights practitioners to widen their theoretical hold on the human rights system and its historical and philosophical underpinnings.