The use of advocacy as a tool to promote human rights law and policy as well as social change is a large and important field. This course will offer students a unique practitioner-based perspective of human rights / humanitarian fieldwork and advocacy. Taught over four days, the course will take the form of a workshop to provide students with knowledge of the various methodologies and approaches to human rights fieldwork and advocacy, including political, legal and ethical considerations. The course will build upon, and offer a practical complement to other courses within the human rights and social justice stream, but may also be of interest to students in the international law stream or and outside the law school (as a stand-alone course for human rights practitioners). It will interweave the practical considerations in designing and implementing human rights law and policy with examples of various different forms of fieldwork and advocacy ranging from political and diplomatic persuasion to public denunciation to community-based projects to social media. These forms will be highlighted with concrete case studies and in-depth critical analysis and discussion of the deliberations every advocate and practitioner must make. It offers a guide to the different dimensions of human rights and humanitarian work in practice ranging from policy implementation at governmental and intergovernmental levels (at field, regional and HQ levels) to traditional fieldwork and advocacy roles in non-governmental and civil society organisations. Students should ideally have a solid understanding of international human rights law and human rights mechanisms. However, no formal course prerequisites are required.
