Oslo, Norway

The Fundamentals of Human Rights

This digital course consists of lectures and seminars during the first three weeks of the summer session, with a take home exam the following week.The course offers an introduction to the history, philosophy and politics of human rights, as well as to human rights law. Multidisciplinary in scope, nonetheless the course also gives substantive content to human rights law and the basic features and the historical evolution of the modern human rights system. Philosophical positions and debates on the legitimacy and justification of universal human rights are examined. Human rights law is then placed in a broader context of international law, and important legal characteristics of human rights treaties, such as the personal and territorial scope of application, the treaty bodies, the supervision and enforcement mechanisms, and the legal impact on the national and international levels are described and discussed.

Target group

Applicants with a completed Bachelor’s degree or a period of study comparable with a Norwegian Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution. Applicants should have a related degree in law, social sciences and/or humanities.

Course aim

Having completed this course the student will have the competence to:
- Analyse a political situation in terms of human rights and elaborate a strategy for improving it
- Assess the validity and usefulness of different approaches to improving a difficult human rights situation
- Identify key players and resource bases for promoting and implementing human rights
- View human rights law in a broader context of international law

Fee info

NOK 0: Due to the fluid situation regarding Coronavirus, all Master's courses will be offered as digital courses, at no cost (students must buy course books themselves).