Graduate Certificate in Human Rights

Since the end of the Cold War, human rights have risen to prominence in both national constitutional politics and international law and governance, as well as had a significant impact upon wider areas such as health, education, the environment and economic development. Few legal/political concepts presently have such a global reach, and few concepts compel political actors to confront the tension between respecting social and cultural diversity while simultaneously identifying universal aspects of the human condition deserving of legal and other protections.

The Graduate Certificate in Human Rights draws upon the academic strengths of the University of Connecticut’s School of Law and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to introduce students to the key modern debates in this interdisciplinary field of study. The program provides a historical, literary and philosophical perspective for thinking broadly about modern human rights, an understanding of social science research on rights, conflict and governance, as well as expertise in the international conventions, treaties and case law from international courts such as the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. The courses encourage students to think critically about the strengths and limitations of the human rights framework and how they might develop an active and original research agenda in this growing field of interdisciplinary inquiry.

Certificate Director

Contact Professor Shareen Hertel, Director of the Graduate Certificate in Human Rights, at (860) 486-4129 or by e-mail at shareen.hertel@uconn.edu..

Eligibility

The Graduate Certificate in Human Rights is designed for graduate students in good academic standing enrolled at the Law School or in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences MA and PhD programs. Students must apply to the Certificate program [download application here] and provide relevant documentation requested therein. CLAS students are strongly encouraged to apply no later than March 1 of the year in which they intend to graduate.

Law School Pre-Requisites and Eligibility

Law School students are strongly encouraged to apply no later than March 1 of their 3L year. Law School students are required to take the Law School course ‘Constitutional Law’ as a pre/co-requisite when embarking upon the Graduate Certificate in Human Rights.

Course Offerings

The Graduate Certificate in Human Rights requires a minimum total of twelve credits, consisting of one core course and three electives, as detailed below. It is recommended that students take core courses first before moving on to elective courses. Core courses cover the main historical, philosophical and legal questions in human rights. Elective courses allow students to branch out into the various subfields of human rights such as indigenous and cultural rights, economic rights, human rights in Latin America and Europe, and so on. Certificate courses do not require pre-requisites, except for ‘Advanced Constitutional Law’ as indicated.

Core Courses

 

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences-Storrs Campus

UConn Law School-Hartford

Electives

Storrs Campus

Anthropology

Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies

Economics

English

German

History

Human Rights

Philosophy

Political Science

 

UConn Law School

[Note: The most suitable courses at the Law School for students from CLAS at Storrs are LAW 7653, LAW 7679, LAW 7872, LAW 7759, and LAW 7883.]

Core Faculty

Forms

Application for Graduate Certificate in Human Rights

Human Rights Certificate Plan of Study Form

Request For Course Substitution