F1HH 4315 - Documenting, Reporting and Campaigning on Human Rights

Objectives of the course:

• To enhance knowledge and understanding of the evolution of research and campaigning on HR, including the key challenges of this work and how to address them.
• To develop practical knowledge of some key techniques on how to document, report and campaign on human rights.
• To enhance ability to think critically and analytically about the development and implementation of research and campaigning projects.
• To develop the practical skills necessary to research and campaign on human rights.

This seminar aims to provide students with a consistent practical knowledge and insight of the key techniques used to document, report and campaign on Human Rights. The course will examine the link between research, campaigning and advocacy in some key areas of human rights (both civil and political rights and ESC rights). While mentioning the key challenges linked with research and campaigning work, the course will focus on the practical challenges of Human Rights Advocacy in some key human rights areas (such as torture, death penalty, sexual violence, armed conflicts, terror and human rights as well as international justice).

For each of these topics, specific techniques will be tested and exercises will be provided based on recent research reports and campaigning and advocacy actions carried out by international and national NGOS in order to show concretely if and whether sound research, clear reporting and concrete advocacy actions can make a difference on the ground. Students will be encouraged to build practical skills and teamwork through group exercises and other formats (research papers and class presentations). Students will be introduced to different levels and types of approaches - legal documents, NGO reports, and academic writings - to get a grasp of the specific and crosscutting aspects of research, campaigning and advocacy in human rights.

Learning outcomes:

This course aims at allowing the students to :

• get expertise on the key techniques for doing research, campaigning and advocacy work on human rights issues;
• develop critical analysis of key human rights issues;
• learn how to interact with officials and other stakeholders through role play and other advocacy tools. y, in-depth engagement with a body of literature, etc.) and in terms of skills developed (, writing policy briefs, oral presentations, etc.).

Professional skills:

The course aims to enable student to development professional skills in terms of:

• analysis of human rights situations, including security issues;
• communicating & writing skills of press releases and urgent actions;
• developing a campaigning plan and learning how to engage with other stakeholders in the civil society to carry out campaigning and advocacy;
• learning and practicing how to contact state officials to present human rights concerns and advocate for change through actionable recommendations to make a difference.

Each exercise, either oral or in writing, will be carefully assessed and corrected with an open debate on the issues and solutions with all the class. The feedback for each writing exercise will be done collectively and in writing in the two weeks following the tests. The students will be asked to participate to this collective feedback so that each will be bale at the same time to learn and share experiences and good practices.

• Class presentation (30%) (10-15 minutes). Students (in groups of three) will be required to prepare a presentation related to a session’s topic. The presentation has to be submitted by mail to the Professor at least three days before the session (i.e. on Fridays).
• Written exercises (60%) – Each student will have to prepare throughout the course three written exercises, including research, which will be corrected collectively.
• Class participation (10%). Each student is expected to participate actively during the class, challenging both the Professor and their fellow students on key issues and being able to come forward with innovative ideas and stand for them.

• In Class Presence: 24 hours a semester
• Reading and Preparation for Class: 24 hours a semester
• Research and Preparation for weekly Short Exercises and role plays : 24 hours a semester
• Research and Writing for Individual Assessments: 75 hours a semester