Module 1 provides an introduction to the United Nations (UN) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In this course, you will be introduced to several international human rights standards – treaties, principles, declarations, etc; all of these have been negotiated and agreed under UN auspices. So you need to understand the source of the UN’s authority in this area.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes all rights – civil, political, economic, social and cultural. But international human rights law actually treats different categories of rights somewhat differently. In this Module we will take an in-depth look at civil and political rights, in particular at the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). We will look at the circumstances in which these rights might be limited – using as a case study the prohibition on torture and debates on whether it might be weakened in the context of efforts to combat terrorism.

In this Module we will take an in-depth look at economic, social and cultural rights, in particular at the range of rights protected in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Having surveyed the range of human rights protected by international law, both civil and political and economic and social rights, we now return to a problem we touched on in Module One. What does it mean to say we hold rights as “humans”? Can specific rights – to equality, to privacy, or to free expression – be the same for everyone, regardless of their particular social, political, religious and/or cultural context? This Module will explore that question.

Having looked in detail at a range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, and the way they are defined and protected in international treaties, we now turn to the key question – can states be forced to abide by the commitments they make when they join the UN and sign human rights treaties? If so, how?

In this Module we examine those procedures to monitor state’s compliance with their human rights obligations that are established under various international human rights treaties.

In this Module we will look at how the UN might respond to human rights crises. Options include deploying peacekeeping troops and/or civilian human rights monitors, or authorising a humanitarian intervention – that is, a military action undertaken by foreign troops to put a stop to ongoing human rights abuses.

This module will explore the degree to which international human rights law can be used to influence the behaviour of transnational corporations. This is a rapidly developing area of human rights concern.

For our second, in depth look at a human rights issue, we will examine the relevance of international human rights standards to the fight against poverty.

In this final module we look at different methods for pursuing justice, through both national and international mechanisms, and the difficulties of doing so.