| Learning outcome | Prescribed content | Possible examples
(Intended as a starting point only: for many topics, local and current examples will be more appropriate than the ones listed, and many more examples are listed than are expected to be covered during the course)
|
|---|
| Nature and evolution of human rights |
Definitions of human rights |
- Notions such as inalienability, universality, indivisibility, equality, justice, liberty
|
| The UN’s The Universal Declaration of Human Rights(1948) |
|
| Developments in human rights over time and space |
- Human rights milestones, eg civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, gender rights, children’s rights, indigenous people’s rights, refugee rights
- Internationalization of human rights, eg universal jurisdiction, international humanitarian law
|
| Codification, protection and monitoring of human rights |
Human rights laws and treaties |
- Role of custom
- Human rights in constitutions, eg South Africa, Brazil
- International examples, eg International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, Rome Statute
|
| Protection and enforcement of human rights at different levels |
- National courts and police, International Court of Justice (ICJ), International Criminal Court (ICC), Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Cambodia Tribunal
|
| Monitoring human rights agreements |
- Ombudsmen, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI), International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, monitoring elections
|
| Practice of human rights |
Claims on human rights |
- Labour rights, indigenous land claims, movements for gender equality, debates about same-sex marriage
|
| Violations of human rights |
- Child soldiers, human trafficking, forced labour, forced relocation, denial of prisoners of war rights, violations of freedom of speech, violations in the name of prevention of terrorism, gender discrimination
|
| Debates surrounding human rights: differing interpretations of justice, liberty and equality |
Individual versus collective rights |
- Western, Asian and African conceptions; indigenous conceptions
|
| Universal rights versus cultural relativism |
- Sharia law, honour killings, hate crime laws, consumer rights
|
| Politicization of human rights |
- Use of human rights for political gain, humanitarian arguments, responsibility to protect, use of sanctions
|
