Study Objective: Human rights are often violated and at the same time international community is attempting to protect them as the international human rights regime is well developed and gives the normative and legal bases for protection.  This course provides an understanding of the meaning of human rights and the problems of human rights protection from the point of view of both politics and law. The questions is how and why human rights violations occur and what can be done to fight against them? After completing the course students understand and can critically analyse how politics and law are related in the practices of human rights. The course is divided in four parts. After the introduction to the course, the second part discusses human rights form the point of view of international relations the third part from the international law perspective and in the fourth part these insights are put together in order to have a comprehensive understanding on the means to provide human rights protection. Human rights and fighting against their violations are studied in two cases which involve two assignments. 

Part I   Introduction to the course  (Heta Heiskanen, Tarja Seppä and Jukka Viljanen)

Part II   Human Rights in international society (Tarja Seppä)

Students understand different interpretations of the human rights concepts and their meaning in international relations. Students are able to analyze different human rights practices and understand human rights both as a conceptual issue of international relations and as a manifestation of human rights policies and practices. Thus, they also understand why human rights are not always respected but also know how to protect them. 

Part III Human rights and international law (Heta Heiskanen and Jukka Viljanen)

Students understand the main legal aspects of international protection of human rights and the role of supervisory mechanisms. Students are able to analyze different human rights related concepts and understand human rights as part of international and national legal order. They understand how human rights law can enhance protection of rights of individuals.  

Part IV    Fighting Against Human Rights Violations

Students have two different case studies involving both political and legal aspects of human rights protection. During these assignments students are able to apply in practice their acquired knowledge from parts II and III and understand interrelated nature of political and legal human rights discourse. The assignments are chosen to provide comprehensive understanding of both regional and universal protection systems. The idea is also to bring together at the same time both intergovernmental and non-governmental systems and the possibility for individuals to make a difference in the fight against human rights violations.

Compulsory preceding studies: HALJUA42 Human Rights Law 5 op and POLPOP01 Introduction to International Relations 5 ECTS or POLPOP02 Introduction to Political Science 5 ECTS