HRTS 500: Advancing Human Rights

Provides an overview of human rights practice and activism. The first part of the course will focus on the history of human rights with an emphasis on the growth of international organizations for advancing human rights. Students will attain a firm understanding of the international human rights system, including international and regional human rights bodies. We will examine grassroots social movements and participatory approaches to human rights activism, including recent critiques of participatory human rights and development. The second part of the course focuses on critical skills needed to become effective human rights activists, including professional responsibility and ethics, interview skills and techniques, translating international norms into specific contexts, psychological issues such as trauma and memory, and various approaches to fieldwork.