This course is interdisciplinary in character, and it is aimed at individuals who are already, or wish to become human rights professionals and activists. In addition the course is suitable for academics, journalists, public servants and employees of intergovernmental agencies. In contrast to many other such programmes which place emphasis on law, this course draws widely upon philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, political science and development economics as well as law.
Lecturers come both from the British academic community and from among human rights professionals.
Based as we are in London, the MA Programme can offer access to a wide range of organisations working in the human rights field, many of whom have a keen interest in the course. The organisations which have contributed to date include Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, Human Rights Watch, Article 19, Interights, Penal Reform International, Minority Rights Group, Redress, Medical Foundation for the Care of Torture Victims, the British Refugee Council and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. In addition, we have invited journalists and documentary film makers with an interest in human rights to show their films and talk to the students about their work. We try to arrange a voluntary placement with a human rights organisation for those students who wish to have an attachment to an organisation. Students spend on average one working day per week, during the first and second semesters, engaged in this kind of work.