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After this course:
- Students will make a start with or further develop their skills to critically question law on its assumed neutrality, and human rights law in particular.
- Students will gain knowledge on human rights law and topical gender issues.
- Students learn to identify and, where appropriate, distinguish between legal, moral, political and other considerations and arguments.
- Students develop their research, analytical, oral and writing skills.
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“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, more or less provides this module’s focus in a nutshell: the universal aspirations of the document as well as the short-sightedness of its drafters in terms of gender (‘brotherhood’).
This module focuses on gender issues in international human rights law. Gender is used here in its broad meaning encompassing both male/female issues as well as LGBTI-concerns. Both issues are closely connected but are not without tensions. Some major concepts (universality, gender, equality) will be explored and applied to human rights law at three different levels: black letter law (what does the law say?), context (why is the law as it is?), and normative assessment (is the law as it should be?).
After an introduction to the relevant background and key concepts such as the equality principle and the contested universality of human rights, one or two topics (e.g. sports, the emerging ‘right to gender recognition’) will be looked into in detail.
This module is not only relevant for students with an interest in gender issues, but for everyone interested in issues of universality, human rights and discrimination.
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