Human Rights Law

International human rights law comprises the legal standards and principles designed to safeguard the dignity and fundamental rights of all individuals. Its central aim is to ensure that every person can fully enjoy their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights without discrimination.

The modern framework of human rights law is rooted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. This landmark document sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled. Building on this foundation, a wide range of international treaties and legal instruments adopted since 1948 have given binding legal expression to these inherent rights and contributed to the development of international human rights law.

In this course, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of these global instruments, as well as key regional systems, with particular emphasis on the European human rights framework. The course also explores the institutional and supervisory mechanisms established at both international and regional levels to monitor compliance and promote the rule of law in the protection of human rights at the national level.

A central component of international human rights law is the set of obligations it imposes on states. By ratifying international treaties, states accept legal duties to respect, protect, and fulfil human rights. Students will examine these different categories of obligations and their practical implications.

The course further addresses accountability mechanisms available when states fail to meet their obligations. Students will learn about individual complaint procedures and communication mechanisms at both regional and international levels, which play a crucial role in ensuring that human rights standards are respected, effectively implemented, and enforced in practice.

The language of instruction is English.

There are no specific requirements for this course.

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge:

The student will have:

• Basic knowledge of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, core international and regional human rights treaties and their various supervisory bodies and procedures.
• Good understanding of central civil and political human rights, as well as social, economic and cultural human rights, and the human right to non-discrimination, and related state obligations.
• Basic understanding of accountability measures in international and regional human rights system.

Skills:

The student will be able to:

• Identify, systematize and formulate international and regional human rights issues and questions.
• Properly interpret international and regional human rights and state obligation in line with public international legal method.
• Address and discuss central issues with regard to the relationship between international human rights obligations and national law.

General competence:

The student will be able to

• Identify, discuss and critically assess the relevant legal human rights framework
• Reflect critically and solve different questions on scope of state’s human rights obligations
• Master and communicate fundamental human rights terminology in English, both orally and in writing.

The course is based on lectures, group work, and self-study.

Teaching in this course is held with physical attendance on campus.

The course has an expected workload of between 250 and 300 hours.

The following coursework requirements must have been approved in order for the student to take the exam:

• Coursework 1: Students are required to submit a written group paper on an assigned theoretical topic. The written group paper may be of no more than 2500 words +/- 10 %.

The purpose of the group assignment is to encourage students to learn to use good English legal jargon in the field of human rights law, and to prepare them for the written exam.

All required coursework must be completed and approved by the given deadline for the student to take the exam. If the coursework requirements have not been approved, the student will be given one opportunity to submit an improved version by a given deadline.

The exam in the course is an individual school exam over a period of 4 hours.

The exam must be written in English.

Lovdata Pro exam mode is permitted exam material.

Grade scale A – F

The exam papers are assessed by an internal examiner.

A sample of at least 10 % of the exam papers is assessed by two, one internal and one external, examiner. The grades awarded for the papers assessed by two examiners form the basis for determining the level for all the exam papers.