Human Rights Watch, Ugandan Elections 2006:
MA in Applied Human Rights
Compulsory modules
The three compulsory modules are: ‘defending human rights’; ‘social sciences and human rights practice ’; and ‘law, public policy and human rights’. The compulsory modules reflect the two sides to activism - the strategies employed and the debates, institutions and political structures activism seeks to influence - and will engage with all facets of the paradox outlined above.
Defending human rights
(40 credits; terms 1 and 2)
The main aim of this module is to have students develop the practical, problem solving, and reflective skills needed for human rights work. At the start of the year, students will be placed in small groups linked to their preferred externships with organizations in South Africa (for the MA), Malaysia (for the LLM), or UK (for either MA and LLM students who decide not to travel abroad). Those student groups will engage in tasks designed to develop specific skill sets, accumulating portfolios of work for assessment. Sessions will be led by Centre staff, experienced practitioners, and international human rights defenders based at the Centre.
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Understand the wide range of advocacy tools used by human rights defenders and organizations;
- Apply problem solving and practical skills to address complex human rights issues;
- Use reflective learning to improve their human rights work;
- Work constructively in small groups; and
- Generate useful outputs for the human rights organizations paired with their small groups.
Module Delivery
The module will be taught using an open format in which lecture delivery and workshop discussion will be combined in three hour teaching sessions. Lectures will be used to introduce core concepts while workshops will give students an opportunity to present their draft portfolio assignments for peer review.
Social Sciences and Human Rights Practice
(20 credits; term 1)
This module aims to analyse the many ways in which disciplines in the social sciences (and some humanities) have come to inform human rights practice. It is informed by the claim that social sciences are increasingly important in human rights practice and will address this central question: How can practical advances in human rights through law, policy and programming be advanced using insights and methods from the social sciences? The module is split into two sections. The first section on the ‘inter-disciplinarity of human rights’ provides background on human rights institutions and activism, and the insights diverse disciplines can provide for human rights practice. The second section explores ways in which the social sciences help us understand and tackle key practical dilemmas: 1) How much scope should there be for cultural diversity? 2) What is the best way to research human rights abuses, and research human rights activism? 3) How should we anticipate and alter responses to human rights work, specifically from perpetrators and the general public responses? 4) What theories of change underpin human rights work? 5) How can practitioners best measure and demonstrate that their work has an impact?
Law, public policy and human rights
(20 Credits, term 1)
The aim of this module is to identify strategies and tools for the application of human rights standards, as set forth in international law, in a variety of contexts. The module seeks to address the related questions, “how can law make a difference?” and “how can we change policy?” Answering these questions requires identifying the intersections between international and domestic jurisdictions, and between human rights, law, public policy and the provision of public services.