Human rights and development

The objective is to understand the relationship between human rights and development, and how human rights can improve development outcomes. Students will explore the contribution of human rights in tackling poverty, inequalities, discrimination and exclusion, with a particular focus on women and girls. Students will study human rights norms and concepts relevant to development, including the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of rights, progressive realisation of economic and social rights, relevance of civil and political rights to sustainable development, especially freedom of expression and the right to information in the digital age, responsibilities of States and corporate actors, and the threats to human rights in some development settings. The course will introduce students to rights-based approaches to development and briefly touch upon the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using case studies and working in small groups, as well as individual assignments, students will critically examine strategies of legal empowerment, social mobilization, human rights activism, advocacy and adjudication in courts which enable women, other marginalized groups and people living in poverty to claim their rights.