Scales and Practices of Human Rights: Legalization, Mobilization and Contestation

Recommended Prerequisites

The same prerequisites for being accepted in the doctoral program, including English proficiency.

Teaching Methods

Methodologies:

lectures that introduce HR regimes and practices and raise core issues;

discussion based on recommended bibliographic studies;

case-studies involving presentation and analysis of emblematic practical cases.

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the study of this seminar will:

-have a thorough knowledge about the theory and practice of human rights regimes (norms, instruments and institutions) at the national, regional and global levels;

-be able to use national and supranational mechanisms for the resolution of human rights issues;

-understand the limits of conventional human rights norms, institutions and mechanisms in the light of other human rights ideals and mechanisms of dispute resolution;

-be able to discuss human rights practices and issues in specific areas of human rights such as the right against torture;

-obtain skills of advocacy and mobilization to ensure respect for human rights; and

-acquire essay writing skills, including synthesis of various theories and practices and presenting new arguments.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The Seminar includes sessions on the following topics:

Global, international, regional and local human rights regimes and institutions

The United Nations, European, Inter-American and African Human Rights Systems

Human rights practices of state, non-state and inter-governmental actors as well as ordinary citizens Legalization of human rights

Practices in specific areas of human rights: Torture, health and human rights

Advocacy and mobilization for human rights

Legal pluralism and human rights

Human rights and access to justice.

Head Lecturer(s)

Cecília Macdowell Santos

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Frequency: 20.0%
Research work: 40.0%
Oral presentation : 40.0%

Bibliography

Alemahu, Sisay (2014), “The African Regional Human Rights System”, in Anja Mihr and Mark Gibney, The Sage Handbook of Human Rights. London: Sage.

Goodale, Mark and Merry, S. E. (orgs.) (2007), The Practice of Human Rights: Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local. Cambridge: Cambridge University.

Keck, Margaret and Sikkink, Kathryn (1998). Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.

Santos, Cecília MacDowell (2015). “Transitional Justice from the Margins: Legal Mobilization and Memory Politics in Brazil,” in Schneider, Nina and Esparza, Marcia (orgs.), Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America: A Janus-Faced Paradigm?, Lanham, Maryland: Lexignton Books, p. 37-72

Simmons, Beth (2012). “Reflections on Mobilizing Human Rights,” International Law and Politics, 44: 729-750.