Human rights play an important role in present-day society. Norms of a fundamental nature have been adopted at the national, regional and global level to protect the individual against the power of the state and to safeguard his or her dignity. International standards guarantee individuals fundamental rights and freedoms, such as the freedom of expression and freedom of religion, the right not to be tortured, the right to a fair trial, the right to equality and non-discrimination, the right to housing, food and an adequate standard of living. These guarantees limit the sovereignty of states in the sense that governments cannot act as they please towards individuals within their jurisdiction.

States must take all necessary measures to make sure human rights norms do not remain a dead letter. They must create an adequate infrastructure to promote and protect human rights and to ensure that international norms are actually implemented at the domestic level. To that end, they must enact legislation to protect human rights, for example by narrowly defining under which circumstances a person may be arrested and by making discrimination a criminal offence. Also, they must provide for remedies in case human rights have been violated, for example by establishing a national human rights institute that can examine complaints and by making it possible that an independent and impartial judiciary examines complaints of human rights violations. Furthermore, states must take the necessary measures to prevent human rights violations. In this course human rights law will be studied through a comparative lens. This includes for example comparisons of the approaches of international and regional human rights bodies, and of the differing positions of state actors and non-state actors, such as multinational corporations. Students will gain insight in human rights norms and procedures that have been established to protect human rights.

Not possible in combination with RGBOM0110 Comparative Human Rights.