International Human Rights Law and Practice

Overview

You'll learn about issues central to the work of human rights scholars and practitioners including states and non-state actors as perpetrators and duty-bearers; standard-setting versus implementation; and the interaction between law, policy and advocacy at local, regional and global levels. 

Whether you are a mid-career professional or recent graduate, our LLM enables you to acquire the substantive knowledge, versatile skills and valuable networks necessary to work in the human rights field.

The International Human Rights Law and Practice programme from the University of York is distinctive because you will:

• work on real human rights issues in partnership with international and local NGOs, UN mechanisms or governmental bodies;
• undertake fieldwork in Kuala Lumpur or York and acquire valuable socio-legal skills;
• learn from the experiences of human rights defenders based at the Centre for Applied Human Rights and from the interactions with an international student body;
• benefit from the interdisciplinary expertise of staff at the Centre for Applied Human Rights and York Law School whose research informs teaching and shapes international policy.

Careers and skills

We provide career advice, networking opportunities, hands-on experience and personalised reference letters to help you find good jobs with human rights NGOs, humanitarian and development organisations, policy think-tanks, national governments, and UN agencies.

Career opportunities

Previous students have gone on to work for:

• The Bar Council

• Defence for Children International

• Development NGOs in West Africa

• East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network

• Egyptian human rights NGOs

• European Union Special Representative's Office in Afghanistan

• Foreign and Commonwealth Office

• Human Rights Watch

• National Human Rights Commission of Korea

• Pakistan's judicial sector

• UK-based NGO working with sub-Saharan children affected by HIV/AIDS

• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees