International Organization and Human Rights

This course has a double function. First it provides a general overview of the phenomenon of international organization in its historical development from the League of Nations to the United Nations and in the contemporary context of a proliferation of international institutional at the regional and global level with their far reaching effects in the sphere of life of nation states, including security, economy, culture, environment and development. Second, it will focus on an important aspect of the mission of international organizations, that is the protection of human rights as a common concern of humanity.

This aspect will be treated in the second part of the course in relation to the work of the United Nations in the field of human rights, from the Universal Declaration to present, and the institutionalization of the mechanism of protection of human rights at the regional level, notably within the UN, with the Human Rights Council and the two Human Rights Committees, the Council of Europe with the European Convention, in Latin America with the Inter-American system of human rights protection, and in Africa with the African Union Charter of human and Peoples' Rights.

In this second part of the course we will examine the role of international law and international organizations at the standard setting level and at the level of enforcement of human rights. Contrary to certain orientations in human rights scholarship, human rights law will not be examined as a self-contained branch of international law but as a domain interconnected with other areas of international law, especially economic law, the law of armed conflict, environmental protection and the law of culture.

(4 Semester Credits/8 ECTS Credits)