Coordinator:  Associate Professor Alison Duxbury    Telephone:  83441002    Office:   Room 0943    Email:   Click here to email Alison Duxbury

 

Description

To view the 2009 materials on the LMS/Blackboard Human Rights and Global Justice subject page, please click here.

For the 2010 University Handbook entry, please click here.

This subject introduces students to the history, theory, goals and practice of international human rights. It will explore the way in which various disciplines intersect and contribute to an understanding of the extent to which human rights can contribute to global justice.  Teachers and practitioners provide competing (and complementary) perspectives on key human rights themes including: the origins of human rights; universal rights versus cultural difference; the relationship between civil/political rights and economic/social rights; causes of human rights abuses; the role of states, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organisations in protecting and promoting human rights, and methods of implementation. Specific human rights case studies that are used to investigate these broad themes will be drawn from issues such as: state-sanctioned torture; foreign aid and development; humanitarian intervention; refugees; human trafficking; human rights and climate change; the relationship between bioethics and human rights; the rights of groups and communities; poverty; and the role of scientific methods and tools in implementation.

The subject will be coordinated by the Melbourne Law School and taught by members of the schools of Law, Political Science, Historical Studies and Population Health.  Dr Tom Davis teaches public policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences and researches in the area of foreign aid and foreign policy making, and human rights and development.  Associate Professor Alison Duxbury teaches International Humanitarian Law and International Law at Melbourne Law School and researches on issues of human rights and international institutional law.  Dr Barbara Keys is an historian whose current research is on the campaign against torture in the 1970s.  Associate Professor Harry Minas is the Director of the Centre for International Mental Health and has led research, teaching and service development activities in transcultural mental health and in the field of international mental health development. John Tobin is a Senior Lecturer in the Law School who has provided human rights training and advice as a consultant and on a pro bono basis to organisations such as UNICEF, the Victorian Law Reform Commission, NGOs and Government Departments.

Students who are interested in taking this subject may also be interested in the activities of the University of Melbourne Human Rights Forum.

For the 2009 subject description, please click here for the official University Handbook entry which includes the following information:

• Credit points
• Prerequisites
• Semester offered
• Contact hours and estimated total time commitment
• Brief subject description
• Assessment
• Prescribed texts

Points: 12.5

Estimated Total Time Commitment: 100 Hours