International Rights of Minorities

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Professor Bill Bowring
• Assessment: a 4000-word essay (100%)

This module is intended to develop critical thinking and reflection on the role of human rights law and mechanisms in resolving ethnic, linguistic and religious conflict. It draws on important resources from related disciplines - philosophy, political science, sociology, anthropology.

You will engage with crucial issues in understanding leading contemporary sources of conflict and bloodshed: injustice suffered by ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples - and ethno-nationalism. We will address complex and contentious issues of theory as it is applied to the instruments and mechanisms established by inter-governmental institutions in seeking to prevent or resolve conflict.

You will gain knowledge and critical insight into the context and role of bodies such as the United Nations, Council of Europe, International Labour Organisation, leading NGOs - and the minority and indigenous groups themselves.

Some seminars will be led by minority advocates and activists from Minority Rights Group International (http://www.minorityrights.org/).