Course content - Learning outcome - Admission - Prerequisites - Overlapping courses - Teaching - Examination - Evaluation

Course content

This course addresses challenges faced by States with cultural/ethnic heterogeneous populations within their borders. With a multi-disciplinary and case-oriented approach, it will consider the state’s theoretical, political, and legal responses to these challenges. The course will offer comparative perspectives on the development of legal and political orders in nations-states and regional entities in response to the standards of the international human rights system. You will address the particular situation in States, such as China (PRC), Ethiopia, Indonesia, Norway, and the Palestine. You will survey issues such as democratic theories, ethnicity, devolution, autonomy, self-determination, indigenous rights, minority rights, and non-discrimination. You will see the existence of tensions between group and individual rights and between different rights, and even that a “rights – based approach” has limitations.

Learning outcome

You will be expected to analyze individual situations (case studies) with the ability to offer creative solutions. This course is an application of international human rights law that enables you to understand the difficulties of creating state policy. You are expected to have a good understanding of the following (based on assigned literature) in relation to the presented case studies:

• Collective (aspects of) rights in international human rights
  law
• Challenges for their implementation at the national level
  
• The formation of group identity
• Problems and tensions in guaranteeing the implementation of
  individual rights while considering group claims.

Admission

Students at UiO must apply for courses in StudentWeb.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

You may register for this course if you have admission to a Master's programme at UiO. All applicants must fill the formal prerequisites.
Priority is given to students on the Master of Philosophy programme in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants

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Prerequisites

Formal prerequisite knowledge

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Recommended previous knowledge

Students with no background in human rights studies are strongly advised to prepare in advance the recommended readings.

Overlapping courses

10 credits overlap with HUMR5501 - Ethnic Challenges to the Nation State: Studying State Responses from a Human Rights Perspective (discontinued).

Teaching

Lectures and seminars with active student participation.

Access to teaching

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Examination

Written assignment.

Use of sources and rules for citing.

Be sure that you are familiar with the use of sources and the rules for citing/quoting from others’ work
UiO uses a plagiarism checking tool as one of several instruments for detecting suspicion of cheating and attempted cheating.

Examination support material

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Auxiliary materials allowed during examinations for courses taught in English.

Recommended/Special Material

Language of examination

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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.

Explanations and appeals

You may request an explanation of your grades, and you may also appeal against your grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals.

Resit an examination

You can usually resit an exam, but the conditions depend on whether you had a valid reason for absence from the regular exam. Read more about resitting an exam.

If a student has submitted a written assignment a second time in the same course s/he can only submit it in a new version. This means that there must be another title and theme, or that the new version must be considerably changed from the first version.

Students who wish to retake the exam in a later semester are not guaranteed that the course is ever repeated with a similar reading list, nor that the exam arrangement will be the same.

Withdrawal from an examination

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A student can sit for this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do this in StudentWeb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit for the exam.
A study programme may have rules that further limit the number of times a student may re-take this exam. In such instances the rules of the study programme will have priority.

Special examination arrangements

If you have a disability or a health problem that entails significant inconvenience in an examination situation, you may be considered for special examination arrangements. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.

Please se Detailed regulations for the Faculty of Law, Chapter 3 regarding application, responsibilities and special measures.

Evaluation

Feedback from our students is essential to us in our efforts to ensure and further improve the high quality of our programmes and courses. All courses are subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students on a particular course to participate in a more comprehensive, periodic evaluation of this course.