Section 1 - ‘Ideas of Rights’
- What is a right and what are the main critiques of the human rights discourse?
- Introduction to the history and philosophy of human rights, classical theories, multi-cultural recognition theory, interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches to human rights
- Universalism versus cultural relativism, environmental rights
Section 2 - ‘Rights in Context’
- Disciplinary insights from political economy, sociology and international relations
- Structures and processes which provide a backdrop to many current human rights debates, claims and violations.
Students will emerge with a deeper and more complex understanding of what human rights are and why they are important, of both their potential and limitations, and of the increasingly wide range of contexts in which they are being applied, used and abused.
This module is assessed by a seen written examination (70% of the overall grade), and three E-tivities (30%).