About the Human Rights Practice programme

Programme length: two years, full-time
Programme start date: last week of August
Number of places: 35
Number of credits: 240
Award: The final degree is a joint award from Roehampton University, Göteborgs Universitet and Universitetet I Tromsø.Locations:

Year one, Semester one: Göteborgs Universitet (Göteborg, Sweden)
Year two, Semester two: Roehampton University (London, UK)
Year two, Semester one: Universitetet I Tromsø (Tromsø, Norway)
Year two, Semester two: UK, Sweden or Norway for dissertation.

Core modules for all students

Human Rights Practice: An Interdisciplinary Approach – 10 ECTS (Sweden)
This module lays the foundation for the whole programme. It introduces the main themes and presents its broad interdisciplinary, problem-orientated and practice-based approach. The module also provides an introduction to the international human rights system.

Human Rights Practice: Legal Perspectives – 10 ECTS (Sweden)
This module aims to give the students basic knowledge of international, regional and national institutions for human rights and of legal thinking and legal applications of human rights conventions. It explores the questions: How are human rights understood from the perspective of law? How are the different human rights articles and court decisions used within a legal framework?

Globalisation: Challenges to Human Rights – 10 ECTS (Sweden)
This module raises the question of where the responsibility for human rights should/can lie in a world where human beings, goods, ideas, and capital move across state borders, at the same time as the state’s power monopoly is weakening.

Human Rights: Society and Social Structure – 10 ECTS (UK)
Students develop an understanding of the social life of rights and the social structures within which violations of rights occur. They learn how to apply some of the theories and research methods that constitute these understandings to selected human rights issues. Both national and international contexts of human rights are explored, enabling students to sociologically analyse both universal and culturally specific dimensions of human rights practices and institutions.

Human Rights and Organisational Management: Civil Society, the State and Market – 20 ECTS (UK)

This module examines the socio-political nature and development of civil society and its organisations. The second part of the module develops a critical understanding of civil society organisations and facilitates the development of analytical tools which furnish students with the ability to assess the performance and effectiveness of such organisations. As part of this module, students undertake work placements in the public and private sector as well as in relevant civil society organisations

Research and Project Management – 20 ECTS (Norway)
The module is divided into three parts:

Part 1: Preparing for Research – Sweden:

conducting literature surveys
planning and structuring research
academic writing (how to write academic papers in English).

Part 2: Project Management and Quantitative Methods – UK:

survey methods and statistical analysis
project management techniques
log frame analysis
stakeholder analysis.

Part 3: The Practice of Social Scientific Research – Norway:

research design
research management
research instruments
social and ethical considerations
research and policy
doing your own research and the dissertation.

Culture, Ethnicity and Indigenous Rights – 10 ECTS (Norway)
This module gives an overview of how ‘the Other’ has been represented in western public and academic spheres since the time of European expansion. Problems raised by processes of social and cultural change will be discussed, from the perspectives of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’. The role of gender relations and religious worldviews within an indigenous context will be related to human rights perspectives. Customary law will be discussed in the context of national and international legislation. Finally the legal and political strategies to improve the position of indigenous people are compared with a view to these peoples’ future position within nation states and the international community.

Dissertation: Human Rights Policy and Practice – 30 ECTS (Sweden/UK/Norway)
The dissertation module responds to the requirement to undertake a special study in depth of some aspect of the programme and thereby realise many of the learning outcomes. After completing the dissertation students will be able to competently and professionally:

adopt appropriate methods for the research design and hypothesis building
analyse, synthesise and evaluate data
formulate policy recommendations that address problems in a programmatic format
formulate solutions in dialogue with peers, tutors, agency personnel and clients to ethical dilemmas which arise in research practice
autonomously plan and manage the research process making effective use of resources
autonomously integrate theory and experience in constructively responding to human rights and social justice problems
demonstrate a creative approach.

Learning outcomes of the programme

Students who successfully complete the programme will achieve competencies and outcomes that reflect the aims of the programme in four key areas:

Knowledge and understanding

Students who successfully complete the MA will be able to:

understand and critically review the contribution of the social sciences (anthropology, law, politics and sociology) to human rights theory, practice and institutions
understand and critically review human rights practice within the context of local, national and global civil society
understand, critically review and apply organisational and management theories within the context of civil society
understand, critically review and apply a range of appropriate research and project management techniques.

Cognitive skills

Students who successfully complete the MA will be able to:

demonstrate a high level of professional responsibility for their work
analyse and evaluate the organisation and structure of civil society organisations
critically analyse, through the use of ‘critical incidents’, the management practice of civil society organisations
analyse and evaluate the role and effectiveness of local, national and international human rights organisations
demonstrate an ability to reflect on, evaluate and respond to the relationship between academic study and professional experience
critically analyse and assess comparative data on human rights and social justice issues from around the world
carefully formulate evidence-based judgements about a range of social and ethical issues
use professional reflection in a systematic and evidenced-based manner
demonstrate cultural and emotional sensitivity in their responses to issues.

Practical skills

Students who successfully complete the MA will be able to demonstrate the following skills:

the selection and application of appropriate research methods and project management techniques
the preparation and writing of reports for different audiences
the development and use of case studies
the undertaking of research projects with minimum guidance
the development of policy proposals as possible solutions to human rights and social justice issues
reflection on personal and career management.

Key skills