AP/HREQ 3150 6.00
International Frameworks for Human Rights
This course provides an interdisciplinary and multicultural understanding of international frameworks for the protection of human rights as instrumentalized in contemporary foreign policy. It analyses the historical and philosophical foundation of international human rights, critically examining the sources of international human rights law, including institutions and dedicated regional and universal enforcement mechanisms.
It also covers a number of substantive civil and political rights, such as the right to life, freedom of expression and equality and non-discrimination. International obligations and derogations in time of public emergency are explored as they arise in customary law, treaty law and the national legal order. Special attention will be paid to the obligations of non-state actors and new ways of looking at the sources and international legal subjectivity. In addition, the course deals with several current issues particularly at the regional level, including the extraterritorial application of human rights treaties, the application of human rights in private relationship and the right to privacy in the digital age. The universal system for the protection of human rights will be critically examined with special emphasis on the UN Human Rights Council and the work of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The course will also examine the regional machinery for the protection of human rights in Africa, America and Europe. A particular attention will be dedicated to the case-law and the reasoning of judges at the national, regional and international level in order to shed light on the contextual hermeneutic of judicial decisions.
Prerequisites: 24 credits.