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Human rights are inherently political. This module explores the implications of locating human rights within political scholarship, as opposed to moral philosophy. It takes seriously questions of power, ideology and legitimacy in distinguishing human rights politics from human rights morality and human rights law. It further explores how the global political history of human rights ideals and practice continues to inform the present, as well as potential futures.

Against this substantive backdrop, you will study the messy institutional politics of regional and international human rights systems, the wide range of actors that engage with human rights at the international and national level, and examine varied factors underlying the compliance gap between human rights standards and practices on the ground.

It is essential to appreciate the political, institutional and socio-cultural obstacles that confront achieving human rights on a global, universal scale. In discussing legal doctrine in most domestic contexts, we typically assume enforcement. In the absence of a global sovereign, international human rights law lacks that facility. However, as you will explore, coercive legal enforcement far from exhausts possible avenues to human rights implementation.

Looming in the background are fundamental questions: What is the role of the state when it comes to the protection and realization of human rights? What is the strategic value of international human rights law? Is universality with pluralism possible or desirable? This module addresses such questions and explores the varied role of states and non-state actors in protecting, promoting and undermining human rights.