Members: £70
Non-members: £90
Concessions: £20 (call the office 020 8340 3343)
Please note that parts one & two are charged separately
Dates:
Part One: 13 January – 10 February
Part Two: 3 March – 31 March
This friendly course will be taught together by Geraldine Van Bueren and James Michael. If class members are travelling or unfortunately unwell then the class will also be available virtually. The class will be provided with readings which will be discussed and different points of view will be welcome, encouraged and explored. No prior knowledge is needed.
Every class will begin with Human Rights in the News – a current case or controversy involving human rights, to be placed in context. The course will be taught in two parts.
Part 1
1 Where did human rights come from -- god-given or man-made? The Golden Rule in religious and secular history. Liberties and rights against the state and others. Different countries and different political systems' approaches to human rights.
2 Where do the laws on human rights come from? From Magna Carta (and its sister), through the French 1789 Declaration(s) and Tom Paine’s Rights of Man, to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Eleanor Roosevelt, Rene Cassin and Mr Humphrey.
3 From the Universal Declaration to Global Laws. How the Cold War shaped human rights. The United Nations Covenants, and the UN alphabet soup of instruments and agencies, and where we are now.
4 Human rights in the regions. Europe: the Council of Europe and the European Union – the splitting of the European Vision. Africa and its human rights. Human rights in Asia, and human rights in the Americas.
5 Europe: the European Convention on Human Rights and how it grew and grew, and our Human Rights Act. The debates about human rights in the UK. The different paths of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Part 2
6 We have rights to health, standard of living, housing and to food – not a lot of people know that. The forgotten proposal - Roosevelt and the Second Bill of Rights
7 Children have rights but do they also have responsibilities?
8 If we are all equal, what does equality mean?
9 If there is a right to peace what happens during war?
10 Emerging rights – treating our environment as if we think we will be around for a while. Should Older Persons have their own Rights?
James Michael was convenor of London University Human Rights subjects for several years while teaching at University College London. He has been a consultant to the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE, and was special advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on Freedom of Information. His publications include Working on the System (Basic Books), The Politics of Secrecy (Penguin) and Privacy and Human Rights (Dartmouth and UNESCO).
Professor Emerita Geraldine Van Bueren KC is an Hon. Senior Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative, Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford, a Bencher in the Middle Temple and a member of Doughty Street Chambers. She served as a Commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was one of the original drafters of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international child laws. She has advised UNICEF, UNHCR, the Commonwealth, the OSCE and works with civil society and governments in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. She headed Law's Duty to the Poor project for UNESCO. She was interviewed by Angelina Jolie for Time magazine and with Angelina Jolie she wrote Know Your Rights and Claim Them (2021).
