Course Descriptions

• Human Rights Advocacy Workshop (May 11 - 15)
• Creating and Running a Human Rights NGO (May 16 - 17)
• Representation of Disadvantaged Groups in Conflict Scenarios (May 18 - 22)
• Bringing Human Rights Home: Applying International Human Rights Law to Domestic Struggles for Justice (May 23 - 24)
• Introduction to Human Rights Methodology (May 26 - 29)
• Criminal Justice Stories Film (May 30 - 31)
• Human Rights and US Foreign Policy (Distance Learning: May 26 - June 27)

Human Rights Advocacy Workshop (2 credit hours)

Instructor: Julie Mertus
May 11 - May 15, 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
This course examines the various aspects of human rights advocacy, from reporting and fact-finding to litigating and lobbying. Considerable attention is paid to conducting human rights field work: how to gather and analyze data, how to stay secure and ethical when working in contentious situation and extracting information from vulnerable informants. In addition, the course considers when and how to create legislative advocacy efforts, how and when to use litigation strategies, and the decision to turn to support from international, regional and national human rights mechanisms. A series of guest lecturers from Washington DC-area human rights organization ensures that the course is cutting-edge and broad in scope. Daily role plays and simulations promote highly interactive teaching and learning. NOTE: This course does not repeat either the undergraduate or graduate introduction to human rights course taught during the regular school term, and students who have taken these courses are most welcome!

Creating and Running a Human Rights NGO (1 credit hour)

Instructor: Joseph Eldridge Robert Tomasko
May 16 - May 17, 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
The purpose of this course is to give participants hands-on exposure to the challenges of running a non-governmental or activist organization. It will focus on developing basic skills needed to organize an effective NGO "from the ground up." Equal emphasis throughout the course will be given to practicalities of management that keep an organization afloat, and the dynamics of leadership that move it forward. Topics to be covered will range from nuts-and-bolts issues such as goal setting, fund raising, strategic planning and organization design, to the more mindset-oriented skills of motivating, momentum-building, using power, and winning hearts-and-minds. The course will be team-taught by instructors with extensive experience in both nonprofit and private sector management, and they will draw from the best practices of both realms.

Special attention will be given to the ways NGOs conduct effective advocacy and activism, and several human rights-oriented case studies will be used to give participants practice applying these concepts to current hot issues.

The course is intended for students who plan on, or are considering, a career in nonprofit service-providing or advocacy organizations. For students who may have previously had internships or fulltime employment with such groups, this course will help them distill, learn from, and share these experiences.

Representation of Disadvantaged Groups in Conflict Scenarios (2 credit hours)

Instructor: Katherine Guernsey and Janet E. Lord
May 18 - May 22, 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
This class addresses the human rights conditions of marginalized and at-risk groups (such as women, people with disabilities, children, ethnic groups and others) during situations of conflict.  It examines violations of human rights experienced by such groups, and explores practical steps that can be taken by different stakeholders to prevent, monitor and respond to such human rights violations. Class is highly interactive and participatory.

Bringing Human Rights Home: Applying International Human Rights Law to Domestic Struggles for Justice (1 credit hour)

Instructor: Andrea Ritchie
May 23 - May 24, 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
International human rights advoacy is most often thought of as something we do with respect to countries outside the U.S. Yet there is a burgeoning human rights movement in the US which is committed to applying human rights frameworks and jurisprudence to domestic organizing, policy advocacy, and litigation. This course will offer a brief historical perspective on the use of international human rights instruments and mechanisms to advance struggles for justice in the US, and offer present day case studies of how human rights-based approaches have led to change. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the application of human rights standards and strategies to the domestic issues they are most impacted by or passionate about!

Introduction to Human Rights Methodology (1 credit hour)

Instructor: Bonnie Docherty
May 26 - May 29, 6:00 P.M. - 9:45 P.M.
Human rights investigations and the success or failure of measures to promote human rights require a careful approach to gathering information. This course will provide students with practical skills for conducting human rights research. It will teach students how to develop projects, conduct interviews, work with documentary and physical evidence, and analyze relevant laws. It will also offer an introduction to advocacy tools, such as press release writing and report briefings.

Criminal Justice Stories in Film (1 credit hour)

Instructor: Rebecca Richman Cohen and Gabriel London
May 30 - May 31, 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Thinking about law is often reduced to considering a series of rules and consequences that are enforced in an "objective" or "neutral" manner. But law, like stories, can be understood as a series of social exchanges framed by competing narratives. Through documentary and fiction films, this course examines criminal justice stories - stories that expose the underlying dynamics of power and culture often obscured in traditional legal discourse. Through the films' portrayal of criminal justice issues (both domestic and related to international war crimes), we will explore how they synthesize or dismiss diverse experiences relating to the law.

Human Rights and US Foreign Policy (3 credit hours)

Instructor: Julie Mertus
** Distance Learning : May 26 - June 28 **
Human rights advocates have reached considerable success in framing policy choices in human rights terms and in influencing the discourse of US foreign policy. The continued presence of human rights as an influential foreign policy theme - even during the most skeptical presidential administrations - can be explained by both the institutionalization of human rights and the centrality of human rights for American identity. However, presidential administrations have not embraced human rights and responded in a consistent manner to human rights concerns. The story of human rights in US foreign policy is one of perpetual tension and resistance, of interpretation and reinterpretation. This course explores the nature of this dynamic process, exposing the way in which it involves both acceptance of and resistance to human rights.