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Human Rights in International Relations (825M9A)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

Human rights are often regarded as ‘the world’s secular religion’ (Eli Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate). And yet, they are also facing challenges from populist parties, as well as those who consider them ‘not enough’ (Samuel Moyn).

What are human rights?
Where do they come from?
Who has contributed to their development and why do we tend to tell Eurocentric, rather than plural, stories about their emergence?
And, importantly, what do they ‘do’ in world politics for those in struggle and in power?

In the current context where human rights appear embattled, you will take a critical approach to human rights as a colonial, political and historical 'artefact', revisiting the history of slavery, colonialism and settler-colonialism, as well as decolonisation struggles. You will explore recent claims about the coloniality of human rights, examining particularly who the ‘human’ of human rights is in gendered and racialised terms in the prevalent assumptions of free and autonomous rights holders.

You will examine in detail multiple practices of human rights in:

• the fields of activism and advocacy
• the struggles for gender equality
• making business accountable for harms to workers and states
• counter-terrorist policy and practices.

You will finally consider how human rights are being extended to more-than-human and other-than-human entities like rivers, forests and Mother Earth in efforts to halt climate change and advance climate justice.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.