HUMR5508 ¨C Human Rights and Diversity - Leading Cases and Core Dilemmas

Course content

Professor Anna Maria C. Lundberg explains the themes in this course.

This multi-disciplinary course focuses on how human rights case law addresses dilemmas in cultural diversity. The main focus is jurisprudence in the fields of freedom of religion or belief and minority rights, including rights of indigenous peoples, as these rights are interpreted both by international case law and in various regional and national jurisprodence. The case analysis aims at a discussion of selected international human rights norms and some core dilemmas that states face in fulfilling the requirements of international human rights law, while taking various cultural traditions into consideration. These dilemmas will be discussed in light of normative theories on individual and state.

Learning outcome

When you have completed this course you should have basic knowledge about the core content of the rights in this field (in particular International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights arts. 1, 18 and 27, complemented by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights arts. 1 and 15 and the ILO 169 Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples).

Second, you should also have insight in the conflicts and tensions between these rights and other human rights (e.g. freedom of religion or belief in conflict with rights of women) and third, an ability to assess these rights from different disciplinary perspectives in case law analysis. Students should develop understanding for dilemmas relating to contextual interpretations of universal human rights, and be able to debate various justifications of these rights as well as their limits.

Admission to the course

You may register for this course if you have admission to a Master`s programme at UiO. All applicants must fill the formal prerequisites.

Students admitted to other Master`s programmes may apply for guest student status.

Recommended previous knowledge

Introductory course in human rights.

Overlapping courses

• 5 credits overlap with HUMR5507 ¨C Leading Cases in Human Rights Law (discontinued).

Teaching

Lectures

Examination

Students are graded on the basis of a written home examination with 10 days duration.

Maximum length for written home exam?is 5500 words. Front page, contents page (optional) and bibliography are not included. If footnotes are used in the text (at the bottom of each page), they are included in the word limits.?

Papers that exceed the word limit may be rejected.

You must familiarize yourself with the rules that apply to exam support materials, and?the use of sources and citations.?If you violate these rules, you may be suspected of cheating or attempted cheating.?You can read about what the university considers cheating, and the consequences of cheating here.

Examination support material

All available exam resources are allowed when answering this exam. Rules for source referencing are crucial for determining whether the use of resources is permitted.?

You are allowed to discuss the examination topics with your course colleagues, but your exam paper must be an independent work.

Language of examination

The examination text is given in English, and you submit your response in English.

Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

This guide is used by examiners for grading this course.

Resit an examination

• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Resitting an examination.
• There are special rules for resitting a passed examination in the master`s programme in Law.

More about examinations at UiO

• Use of sources and citations
• Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
• Withdrawal from an exam
• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Explanation of grades and appeals
• Resitting an exam
• Cheating/attempted cheating

You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.