Introduction To Human Rights
Up one levelDocument Actions
This short introductory course provides a grounding in the basic principles of human rights. It also introduces participants to the international and regional conventions and instruments which encode human rights.
It is one of an integrated collection of courses developed by Fahamu in conjunction with the University of Oxford.
Learning objectives
By the end of the course participants will be able to:
- Define human rights
- Explain how human rights are codified
- Understand how human rights are monitored and enforced
- Distinguish between economic, social and cultural rights
- Understand how the values underlying human rights affect the way in which organisations should be run.
Course content
The course is in four parts.
1 What are human rights?
- Defining the term
2 Monitoring, enforcement and protection
- How rights are enshrined in law and the mechanisms and bodies set up to make monitoring easier.
3 The human rights system
- The treaties and laws that encode human rights as enforceable statements of law.
4 Values in a human rights organisation
- A human rights organisation should reflect the underlying values of human rights – not only in its monitoring and campaigning but also in its own practice.
