Handbook

This course examines the fundamental legal standards and institutions of international human rights law through the medium of contemporary human rights concerns. It will familiarise you with the basic principles of international human rights law and the mechanisms for its enforcement and provide an exploration off the role of international human rights norms in domestic legal systems (with a focus on Australia).

This course aims to provide students with an introductory engagement with the substance, institutions and techniques of international human rights law.

The specific topics covered vary from year to year and may include:

• narratives of the history of human rights;
• universalism and cultural relativism;
• the United Nations human rights system;
• regional and subregional systems for the protection of human rights;
• techniques of interpretation of human rights;
• the nature of State obligation;
• death penalty;
• freedom of expression;
• economic, social and cultural rights;
• gender and human rights;
• disability and human rights;
• the rights of indigenous peoples under international law;
• human rights and terrorism: clash between rights and security;
• domestic implementation of international human rights in Australia;
• refugees: international standards and protections; international law of equality and non-discrimination.

Main Topics

• What are human rights?
• Framework of the international human rights system
• Major international human rights instruments and monitoring and implementation mechanisms
• The UN human rights treaty bodies, generally and with specific reference to Australia
• The nature of State obligations under international human rights law
• Interpreting rights: techniques and sources
• The death penalty and human rights law
• Freedom of expression
• Economic, social and cultural rights
• Human rights violations by private actors
• Domestic implementation of human rights in Australia (including the work of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights).