Overview

The problem-focused curriculum and the strong interdisciplinary and comparative approach offer students ample opportunities to understand the theoretical and legal foundations of human rights and engage with challenges to human rights protection in an age of skepticism and populism.

 The MA in Human Rights at Central European University (CEU) ―like all other programmes at the Department of Legal Studies―is committed to research-based teaching. Areas of research and teaching include international mechanisms for the protection of human rights in all international and regional human rights regimes, freedom of expression and freedom of religion, human rights and criminal justice, political rights, non-discrimination, minority protection, human rights and development politics, human rights in Africa, the constitutional protection of rights on a basic level, and more.

Courses by our part-time (visiting) faculty build on the core content taught by permanent faculty, permitting us to introduce courses on contemporary human rights challenges as they arise. The programme also benefits from close cooperation with other master’s programmes at the Department via optional thematic specializations.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course students will be equipped with

• a substantial understanding of the institutional and procedural frameworks of human rights enforcement in major jurisdictions

• considerable knowledge of the protection of particular human rights on national and supranational levels

• a critical appreciation of the nature, efficacy and theoretical foundations of the international human rights regime

• the ability to generate new ideas and advocacy strategies that provide genuine solutions to complex human rights problems using comparative arguments and interdisciplinary insight

• the capacity to analyze human rights issues in a policy-relevant manner

• the skills to envision a human rights-based approach to addressing diverse legal, regulatory and policy problems