Understanding Human Rights in Practice

Lecture and Discussion in the context of „Cross Disciplinary Strategies“, 2. Semester/Spring 2019

Curriculum

This course aims at discussing with the students a number of case studies and current challenges on the basis of working groups and papers to be written and presented by the students.

1. Introduction and preparation of a simulation of court case

15 March 2019, 09:15 – 12:45
18 March 2019, 09:15 – 13:30, 14:30 – 17:00

Lecture: Overview of the meaning of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights contained in the two United Nations Covenants and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Preparation of a simulation of court case before the European Court of Human Rights:  Establishing of 4 groups to prepare the case and its court simulation until the next session.

Explanation of the tasks and requirements for writing and presenting the papers

2. Student Tasks

19 March – 20 May 2019

Preparation of the simulation in the 4 different working groups

Identification of topics for individual papers and submitting proposals of not more than 1 page until, at the latest, Monday, 22 April 2019.

3. Simulation of a Case before the European Court of Human Rights

21 May 2019, 09:15 – 13:30, 14:30 – 18:45

Interactive Seminar: Role Play, Feedback and Debriefing

Presentation of paper outlines by students, discussion and joint definition of the respective topics.

4. Student Tasks

22 May – 16 June 2019

Individual research, production of papers (max. 10 pages) and submission to all colleagues and course leader, at the latest on 10 June 2019.

Preparation of oral presentation. Reading of all papers submitted and preparation of critical feedback.

5. Paper Presentation and Discussion

17 June 2019, 09:15 – 13:30, 14:30 – 17:00

Paper presentation and critical feedback by colleagues.

Assessment

Students will be graded on the basis of

(1) their participation and performance at the role play,

(2) their individual papers ,

(3) the presentation of the papers and

(4) their feedback on the papers of their colleagues and joint discussion.

Literature

Nowak, Januszewski, Hofstätter (eds.) (2012), All Human Rights for All – Vienna Manual on Human Rights

Bisset (ed.) (2016), International Human Rights Documents