 This short introductory course aims to give you a grounding in the basic principles of human rights.
Learning for Change is an integrated collection of courses developed by Fahamu in conjunction with the University of Oxford.
Learning for Change pioneers a unique and innovative approach to learning. Using CDROMs, workshops and a learning community mediated by email, these courses will help you build capacity with minimum disruption to your own work. Each course includes practical projects that will benefit your organisation directly.
Every participant who successfully completes a course will be awarded a certificate from the University of Oxford.
Objectives
This course aims to make you think about the principles and values underlying human rights.
When you have completed this course you will be able to:
- Define human rights
- Explain how human rights are codified
- Understand how human rights are monitored and enforced;
- Distinguish between economic, social and cultural rights
- Understand how the values underlying human rights affect the way in which we
should run your organisation.
AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS
This course introduces you to the basic principles of human rights, as well as the international and regional conventions and instruments which encode them. The CDROM contains a comprehensive library of all relevant declarations, conventions and documents, as well as useful website addresses on CDROM.
Structure and outline
The course is in four parts.
What are human rights?
We begin by defining the term. The word ‘human’ means that all people are entitled to them; the word ‘rights’ means that these are entitlements that can be enforced by law.
We look at the values underlying human rights and how they constantly develop. They usually emerge as a result of popular struggles against injustice. And they often do so against fierce resistance from entrenched and powerful interests. We explore examples of these struggles.
With rights come responsibilities. We look at how individuals and governments have certain duties and obligations to respect, protect and promote the rights of others.
Human rights are not absolute and may often come into conflict with each other. We examine the complicated issues in human rights that arise when rights conflict with each other.
Monitoring, enforcement and protection
Human rights are not worth very much if they are only aspirations written on a piece of paper. Their value is as legal entitlements that can be enforced. So, after looking at rights, we examine how they are enshrined in law.
Laws, of course, must be enforced. The first part of the enforcement process is monitoring. In this section, we shall explore the different forms of monitoring:
- In particular places, such as prisons, courts, hospitals and schools
- In particular situations, such as an election and
- On specific issues, such as child labour or female circumcision.
We shall look at the mechanisms and bodies set up to make monitoring easier.
The human rights system
In this section, we look at the treaties and laws that encode human rights as enforceable statements of law.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was agreed by the newly founded United Nations in 1948. Since 1948 the UN and other bodies have enacted treaties that give force to the rights contained in the UDHR – as well as some new ones. The most important of these treaties are the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. We look at all of these crucial documents.
We shall examine how courts have enforced some kinds of human rights, and neglected others. We shall also look at the set of international laws that govern situations of armed conflict.
Values in a human rights organisation
A human rights organisation should reflect the underlying values of human rights – not only in its monitoring and campaigning but in its own practice.
In this section, we shall examine some of these values and practices, including:
- Respect for other people
- Tolerance of different points of view
- Participation of staff in decision-making
- Transparency in the decision-making process
- Accountability of managers, staff and office-holders
- Fair pay and terms of service
- Good working conditions
- Sensitivity on issues of gender.
The workshop is mainly devoted to practising some of the skills you have learned – especially interviewing skills, one of the core skills for a factfinder. You will also have a chance to review the first part of the course. You will discuss with your tutor the subject of your main assignment.
Assignments
You will be required to complete a number of assignments as part of the course. If you are unsure about how to tackle an assignment, contact your tutor.
Email group
You are not doing this course on your own, though it may sometimes feel like it. You are encouraged to communicate by email with the rest of the group doing this course. Some activities are specially marked for email discussion. There is at least one discussion topic each week. You should also feel free to communicate with the group on any other exercises.
You can choose not to participate in a discussion if you feel it is becoming too time-consuming. However, we strongly recommend that you participate as actively as possible in email discussions to get the most out of this course.
Email discussions will be copied to the tutor but not assessed or moderated. Your tutor will not give automatic feedback unless you specifically ask for it. However, they will give you feedback or advice on the planning and execution of assignments.
When you have successfully completed the course, you will be awarded a certificate from the University of Oxford and Fahamu.
This course was originally developed with the financial support of the European Union, the British Department for International Development, and the Canadian International Development Research Centre.
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