HUMR5131 – Human Rights in History, Philosophy and Politics

This course provides an introduction to the history, philosophy and politics of human rights. It offers a presentation of the historical evolution of the modern human rights system and examines philosophical positions and debates about the concept of human rights and the legitimacy and justification of universal human rights, as well as critiques from philosophical and social sciences perspectives.

The students will examine human rights commitment, compliance and contestation in international relations, discuss human rights practices in different regime types, and explore the grounding of human rights in different cultures and normative traditions.

After having completed this course the student will have acquired detailed knowledge about:

• the historical evolution of the modern human rights system
• the most important debates in the philosophy of human rights, including debates about different concepts of human rights, about the justification of human rights and about the legitimacy of human rights
• the status, functions and uses of human rights in international relations
• the implementation and promotion of human rights in today’s nation-states

After having completed this course the student will have the skills to:

• evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different theories of human rights
• Justify human right claims and critically assess proposed justifications of human rights
• Assess the legitimacy of human right institutions
• analyse and understand the variation in human rights compliance across the world
• identify the main challenges in promoting and implementing human rights in different countries and regions as well as in different societal sectors
• understand the strong and weak sides of solving societal problems through human rights analysis and implementation

Having completed this course the student will have the general competence to:

• Critically assess and use academic literature on human rights from philosophy and social science

The course is reserved for students enrolled in the Master’s programme Theory and Practice of Human Rights and Rettsvitenskap, at the master’s level.

When your admission is in order you must register for courses in StudentWeb.

Lectures and seminars with active student participation.

As part of this course you must submit a mandatory written midterm (approved/not approved). You write the midterm over 10 days, maximum length for the midterm is 2500 words.

Students are graded on the basis of a 7 days written home exam and an oral exam (20 min) that will take place after the home exam assignment.

The oral exam is primarily a conversation about the candidate's assignment. The oral examination will also verify that the student has written the assignment. See more information about the oral exam.

You submit your answer in the exam system Inspera. Read about how to submit your answer.

Mandatory requirements must be approved before one can sit for an exam.

Maximum length for written home exam is 4000 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 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.

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.

While you may discuss the exam question with others, your paper must be an independent work.

Guidelines on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in exams

1. The use of artificial intelligence as an aid when answering this exam must comply with UiO’s guidelines for using AI, and ethical issues related to AI use should be considered.
2. AI use must be explained and/or documented. The more AI is used in developing the text, the greater the expectations for documentation and reflection on that use. Text generated by AI tools is not considered an academic source.
3. Cheating: Use of AI can be considered cheating if, for example, you give a false impression of independence, omit sources, or cite fictitious sources.

Home exam: 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.

Midterm exam: Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.

Marking criteria

This guide is used by examinersfor grading this course.

It is possible to take this exam up to 3 times. If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt. 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.

• Illness at exams / postponed exams
• Resitting an examination.