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Summer School 2009:
Explore International Human Rights
at Columbia University in the City of New York

The Summer Term’s courses are designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines. Courses combine lectures and classroom discussions. Course content as well as co-curricular activities emphasize interaction between human rights theory and practice. Practitioners are welcome.

CSHR’s Human Rights Summer Program is offered in conjunction with Columbia University’s Summer Term. The first academic human rights center in the world, CSHR provides excellent human rights education, fosters innovative, interdisciplinary academic research, and offers its expertise in capacity building to human rights leaders, organizations, and universities across the globe.

International students and international professionals may be eligible to take classes this summer on a non-credit basis through the human rights visiting scholar program. To learn more about the visiting scholar program, please contact Dr. Elazar Barkan at

The Human Rights Summer Program offers co-curricular activities in addition to the five courses. In previous Summer Programs, students have had the opportunity to meet with experts from Human Rights Watch, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and the UN Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect. Students have also attended the annual Human Rights Watch film festival. This year the festival will take place June 11-25, 2009.

For tuition and application information, please visit www.ce.columbia.edu/summer or contact the School of Continuing Education at 212-854-9666 or

Session I: May 26- July 3, 2009

Introduction to Human Rights (6 weeks, three credits)

Summer Session I: May 26 to July 3, 2009
Mon/Wed, 2:00-5:10pm
Columbia University, HRTS 4020
Professor G. Andreopoulos
View course details, including location, on CU Registrar's site

This course will focus on key concepts in human rights, and examine their analytical value in the context of varying approaches towards the promotion and protection of internationally recognized human rights norms. In particular, the course will examine these concepts in light of the recent debates in international relations on the role of ideas and norms, and of the growing convergence between international human rights and international humanitarian law. It will assess the impact of normative considerations, the role of state and non-state actors, as well as that of international institutions on a whole set of critical issue areas including discrimination, accountability, human security, political membership, human development, and legal empowerment. The course will conclude with an evaluation of recent initiatives in UN-led human rights reform.

International Human Rights Law (6 weeks, three credits)

Summer Session I: May 26 to July 3, 2009
Mon/Wed, 2:00-5:10 pm
Columbia University, HRTS 4220
Professor J. Trahan
View course details, including location, on CU Registrar's site

This course introduces students to the basic doctrines of international law and the processes through which it develops, is implemented, and changed. What is international law, how is it relevant to contemporary governance and which institutions are involved in its development, application and enforcement? What are the relations among international, foreign and municipal law? What is the role of states, and how is sovereignty being redefined? What roles do international organizations, such as the United Nations and its specialized agencies, regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and private corporations play? Why, when and by whom is international law observed and what consequences ensue when it is breached? Can it be enforced, and if so, how? And, what theoretical frameworks can assist us in understanding, identifying, interpreting, implementing - and seeking to influence - international law?

Discussion will be grounded in the analysis of particular cases regarding key issues such as the formation and inter-relationships of states, the ways in which states incorporate international law into their own legal orders, the contexts in which international criminal jurisdiction can be asserted, the use of force, and human rights. Students will be asked to identify issues and relevant sources of law, evaluate the usefulness of different theoretical frameworks, draw on empirical data and provide interpretations of applicable law.

Session II: July 6-August 14, 2009

Corporate Social Responsibility: A Human Rights Perspective (6 weeks, three credits)

Summer Session II: July 6-August 14, 2009
Tues/Thurs, 5:30-8:40 pm
Columbia University, HRTS 4180
Professor J. Bauer
View course details, including location, on CU Registrar's site

Students will encounter the existing and emerging international human rights framework relevant to business and be exposed to the methods and tactics employed by human rights advocates and business to address their human rights impact.

Women & Human Rights (6 weeks, three credits)

Summer Session II: July 6-August 14 2009
Columbia University, HRTS 4404
Professor D. Fottrell
View course details, including location, on CU Registrar's site

This class will use a gender perspective to explore key issues, including emerging and contested areas, in international human rights, as well as addressing gender as a subject of human rights.