Theory and Practice of Human Rights

Overview

The Master in Theory and Practice of Human Rights at University of Oslo brings forward dreams of freedom as well as fears of foreign domination and it refers to actually existing international law and associated legal and political mechanisms as well as processes of far-reaching social and cultural change.

This programme focuses on human rights in both theory and practice from legal, historical, philosophical, political and social science-based perspectives. Students are provided with specialised knowledge about human rights law, including the relationship between that law and other types of human rights initiatives and activities.

Human rights are approached as an element of public international law, at global and regional levels, and the different forms of implementation — international, regional, and national — are examined. They are also contextualised within a social science perspective and knowledge about and understanding of the normative and institutional framework, contemporary issues relating to terrorism, religion, ethnicity, women and development are studied in different courses.

After having completed the required number of courses and written a master thesis, students will have acquired advanced knowledge about:

• human rights as a branch of public international law, and relevant juridical mechanisms at global as well as regional levels,
• human rights as an object of study in history, philosophy and the social sciences, as well as a practical reality in national and international politics,
• different forms of promoting and implementing human rights, domestically as well as on the international level
• the role of human rights in contemporary issues relating to terrorism, religion, ethnicity, gender and development
• scholarly values such as transparency, impartiality, clarity, reliance and the importance of sound reasoning and empirical inference