With complex legal protections and varying societal norms, how do we ensure rights for all?
About this course
From women to children to indigenous peoples, the rights of marginalized groups the world over are violated daily. These injustices affect not just these groups, but also the stability of our world – and our collective future.
Join this massive open online course to learn about the establishment of human rights and their linkages to many other global issues in sustainable development. Using legal frameworks as the lens, the course explores the barriers that prevent rights from becoming reality in different societies.
This course is for:
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Graduate students and advanced undergraduate students studying human rights, law, sustainable development, international relations, and related fields
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Human rights practitioners working on the ground who want to improve the efficacy of intervention programs
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Lawyers and policymakers interested in the context of existing and past human rights legislation and the current issues at play in revising legislation or adopting new legislation
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Private-sector actors , such as those who work in corporate sustainability and responsibility, who are interested in labor rights, gender equality and more
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Sustainable development practitioners who want to understand human rights in the context of a range of issues, such as forced migration
What you'll learn
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International agreements in place to support marginalized groups
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How global politics shape the conversation – and the law
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Gender, ethnicity and other factors that intersect – and interfere – with rights worldwide
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How new approaches to humanitarian assistance hurt and help
Syllabus
Module 1: Why Does the World Need Human Rights?
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Human Rights and Why We Need Them
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From Economic Growth to People-Centered Development
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The “Rise of Rights” in Development
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Creating Human Rights
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Are Rights Enough?
Module 2: International Legal Frameworks, Institutions and Development
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Underlying Concepts of International Law
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United Nations Institutions
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International Law and Standards
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Regional Systems for Human Rights
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Social Inclusion
Module 3: International Human Rights Frameworks
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Special Rights for Some
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Convention on the Rights of the Child
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Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
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International Rights Treaties
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Limitations of Existing Standards
Module 4: Underlying Frameworks for Social Inclusion
Module 5: Contested Rights and the Co-option of the Rights Discourse
Module 6: Gendered Poverty and Inequality
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Poverty and Wellbeing
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Gender Inequality
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Households as Sites of Inequality
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Gendered Experience of Poverty
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Attacking Gender Inequality Within Development
Module 7: Gendered Rights and Violence
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Women’s Rights
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Sexual and Reproductive Rights
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Violence and Legal Frameworks
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Gender in the UN Human Rights Framework
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Root Causes and Lived Realities
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Social Communication for Social Change
Module 8: Social Exclusion: Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
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Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
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Issues Facing Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
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Social Exclusion by Continent
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Overcoming Structural Inequalities
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Combatting Social Exclusion
Module 9: Advocating for the Vulnerable
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Vulnerability and “Natural” Disasters
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Gendered Experiences of Disaster
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Social Protection: Problematizing Conditional Cash Transfers
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Culture v. Rights: The Case of Female Genital Mutilation
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Equalizing the Encounter: Free Prior Informed Consent
Module 10: From Exclusion to Inclusion: Responding to Crisis and Conflict
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Humanitarian Response to Crisis
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“Do No Harm”: The Rise of “New Humanitarianism”
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International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
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Democratization and Political Participation: The Situation Room
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Responding to Crisis: Mediating for Peace
About the instructors
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Joshua Castellino (Executive Director and Professor of Law at Minorities Rights Group International)
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Sarah Bradshaw (Head of the School of Law and Professor of Gender and Sustainable Development at Middlesex University)
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