This certificate course offered by the Human Rights Center of the University for Peace will provide participants with a comprehensive outlook on the interface between business, development, and human rights. Business corporations have always been, some may argue even before the advent of the nation-state system, important drivers of economic growth. At the same time, businesses have also often been accused of engaging in activities which may lead to violations of human rights of different stakeholders. This has enabled strong critiques of their role in the overall development process. This e-learning course will critically examine this business-development-human rights nexus with a particular focus on case studies from around the world. Several questions such as the human rights obligations of businesses, the manner in which human rights are affected by businesses including during armed conflicts, the specific linkages with the right to environment and labour rights and the ever elusive solution for accountability will be examined. We will also look at the idea of corporate social responsibility within the right to development debate. A major part of the course will be devoted to an analysis of the successes and challenges of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which were endorsed by the Human Rights Council of UN in 2011. Participants will also learn the tools for conducting human rights and stakeholder identification and designing due diligence policies.
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) is a global human rights violation that constitutes a contemporary form of slavery. It has acquired alarming proportions generating profits of billions of dollars annually, an organized trade in which women and girls are particularly vulnerable. This course is designed to introduce participants to the different manifestations of trafficking, and to examine the broad spectrum of issues related to trafficking from an international and regional legal framework perspective. The course is oriented towards a human rights based approach to TIP and the recognition of the trafficked person as a ‘victim of crime’. Special emphasis will be given to developing an understanding of the measures taken to protect human rights of the trafficked persons.
- Teacher: Geeta Sekhon
This certificate course offered by the Human Rights Center of the University for Peace introduces participants to the major themes and debates concerning the relationship between human rights and development. The course begins with an examination of the different conceptions of ‘development’, including its evolution in theory, policy and practice, and its linkages with human rights. Participants analyze the human right to development, which treats development itself as a human right and not just a process which leads to improvement in human rights. The doctrinal and policy implications of adopting a ‘human rights-based approach to development’ based on the ‘right to development’, are discussed along with what such approaches mean, and what are the tools to implement them in the field. Participants will also explore the new streams of critique that have enabled a confluence as well as a questioning of the human rights-development linkages. These include a critical analysis of the successes and failures thus far of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. The role of strategic litigation in the interface between development and human rights is also looked at with the help of case studies from around the world. In the latter part of the course, selected current issues in the human rights-development interface that are salient from a policy perspective will be examined, including the role of trade, finance, investment, development aid, and aid for trade. Finally, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development and human rights is examined.
The course is designed both as a stand-alone specialized course on the linkages between Development and Human Rights, but also as a foundation course of the Diploma in Sustainable Development and Human Rights.
- Professor: Mihir Kanade
This course introduces participants to the diverse, yet interlinked, issues related to the trans-boundary movement of people and how this affects human rights. It starts off by exploring the notion of 'forced migration', and distinguishing it from various other notions that are used to refer to the phenomenon of trans-boundary movement of people. In particular, it looks at how different people have different access to other states. Is there a right to be allowed into an other state? If so, under what conditions? The course then moves on to look at the specific regimes protecting, in varying degrees, different groups of vulnerable people. First, it gives an overview of the international law of refugee protection. Second, it looks at how human rights apply, or not, in the case of undocumented migrants. Third, it covers the protection of victims of human trafficking and the policies in place against the smuggling of people. Fourth, it considers whether migrants in general are entitled to enjoy specific social rights. Finally, it takes a closer look at the human rights dimension of border control, in particular in cases where people die in their attempts to reach the countries of their destination.
- Professor: Juan M. Amaya-Castro
This certificate course offered by the Human Rights Center of the University for Peace will introduce participants to the increasingly significant field of indigenous peoples’ rights and looks at the contemporary issues that have paradoxically led to a recognition of those rights on the one hand, while simultaneously challenging their implementation on the other. The course will address the broad spectrum of issues involved in the field of indigenous peoples’ rights, beginning with who qualifies to be “indigenous peoples”, the scope of their right to self-determination, the international and regional legal frameworks for the protection of their rights and the challenges associated therewith, and the debates surrounding the concept of indigenous governance. The course will also look closely into human security and human development issues relating to indigenous peoples, the role of investment, extractive industries and other business corporations in indigenous reservations/areas, and the effect of intellectual property rights on the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples. Strong emphasis will be placed throughout the course on case studies from around the world. Participants will explore debates on mainstreaming versus autonomy, participatory governance, scope of ‘free and prior consent’ and the right to development, amongst others.
- Professor: Mihir Kanade