Defending Human Rights
Human Rights are ever important. When it comes to various issues like discrimination, inhumane treatment of prisoners, domestic violence, or attacks against journalists, human rights defenders always have to be vigilant. In this practical course, we will try doing what anyone can do to promote a society that respects the dignity and rights of every person.
We will discuss the role of different actors, such as civil servants, politicians, activists, or private companies. We will seek to understand in what ways each of these groups can contribute to defending human rights. And we will discuss all of this using the case of a specific human rights issue, which we will choose together before the start of the course.
Only a small portion of the course will be taken up by lecture. Instead, we will be collaboratively designing a solution to a chosen problem. We will do so by creating an advocacy campaign – a partly expert and partly activist initiative. We will start by studying materials like laws and newspaper articles, before analysing the problem and proposing a solution. We will try drafting bills, convincing politicians, and educating the public. We will have our own logo, posters, policy papers… The only limit is our imagination (and time)!
There is no prerequisite for this course, it is suitable for everyone. If you’re interested in law, politics, marketing, PR, graphic design, journalism or similar fields, this might be the course for you!