730-350 Human Rights Law

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Subject Description:

The course aims to familiarise students with the key elements of the international system for the protection of human rights. The founding instruments of the international system (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the two human rights covenants) and the historical and theoretical genesis of the human rights idea are explored first. The course then evaluates the system of implementation and enforcement of human rights with particular emphasis on the United Nations Human Rights Commission, committees established to supervise particular human rights treaties such as the Human Rights Committee, and non-government organisations such as Amnesty International. The regional systems of Europe, the Americas and Africa are also briefly examined with some attention directed to the question of an Asian regional human rights instrument. Implementation and Enforcement of human rights by national governments is studies, with particular emphasis on Australia's practice. Several topics of current interest are then examined -- for example, international humanitarian law and international war crimes trials, the rights of indigenous peoples, development, and the protection of refugees. The rights of women receive particular emphasis throughout the course.

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Prescribed Texts:

Printed Materials will be issued by the Law School Office.

• Steiner & Alston, International Human Rights in Context, Oxford, 1996.