Human Rights |
www.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre | E
admit@essex.ac.uk | T +44 (0)1206 873666
Why study human rights? In the twenty-first century, human rights have become a global language for justice, peace and development. Initially spelled out in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they have become increasingly important for the ways in which states conduct their domestic and foreign affairs. Across the world, people increasingly appeal to human rights in their attempts to overcome oppression and injustice. Human rights are central to attempts to prevent genocide, torture, famine and environmental destruction. Human rights are also central to attempts to protect the most vulnerable in highly developed societies from the effects of prejudice and discrimination. Human rights offer a powerful tool for confronting oppression and discrimination in all of its forms, at home and abroad.
We offer a unique series of courses within our undergraduate human rights programme. This programme represents a significant development in undergraduate education in the United Kingdom, which Essex has pioneered. This development seeks to make our graduates literate
about the human rights aspects of the world around them, while encouraging active and participatory citizenship at all levels.
Our programme is international and interdisciplinary by design, providing the theoretical foundations, substantive knowledge and evaluative tools for you to understand and respond to national, regional and international socio-economic and political developments. Our human rights programme draws on the expertise of academics, advocates and activists from the internationally renowned Human Rights Centre, and among the UK’s leading Departments of Government, History, Philosophy and Sociology, together with the School of Law and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities.
What is the Human
Rights Centre? Founded over 25 years ago, we co-ordinate teaching, research and practice in the field of human rights. In 2010, we were awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for our work in
University staff and students from the Human Rights Centre receiving the Queen’s Anniversary Prize at Buckingham Palace
pioneering and protecting human rights around the globe. With almost 50 academic staff members and 30 external fellows, we bring together some 250 scholars and practitioners across disciplines and courses, representing 50 nationalities. We organise and support a range of activities throughout the year and manage research projects on human rights, conflict prevention and promotion of democratic governance.
In April 2000, along with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, we launched the Torture Reporting Handbook, which has been translated into numerous languages and is used throughout the world. We are home to the UK member of the UN Human Rights Committee, and a member of the Government’s new Advisory Group on Human Rights. A number of our staff have also held senior positions in intergovernmental organisations and are actively involved in international practice.
What are the departments, schools
and centres like? Each of the academic departments, schools and centres participating in the programme offer core and optional modules in the disciplines of politics, law, philosophy and sociology, while offering a particular focus and relevance to the subject of human rights and through examining a series of important questions.
The School of Law focuses on how public and international law provides the appropriate framework for the realisation of a global human rights regime, to which all states are bound, while investigating the complex relationships between state sovereignty, self-determination, international responsibility and the universality of human rights.
The Department of Government, ranked first in the UK in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE, 2008), seeks to understand and make explicit the normative political theories from which human rights are derived, investigate the theoretical and empirical relationships between development, democracy and human rights, and examine how inter-state relations affect the promotion and protection of human rights.
150 | Undergraduate Prospectus 2012
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