Human Rights

Study:	Social Work - preparatory semester - 2. semester
Code:	70204
ECTS:	3.0
Course coordinators:	doc. dr. sc. Antonija Petričušić

Literature:
Kregar, J., Gardašević, Đ., Gotovac, V., Jelić, I., Jurić, M., Ofak, L., Petričušić, A., Selanec, G., Staničić, F.; Ljudska prava; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu (2014), str. 142
Optional literature:
Gomien, D.; Kratak vodič kroz Europsku konvenciju o ljudskim pravima; Vijeće Europe (1996), str. 175

Description:

b. Division of subject in three basic units:
- Conceptual fundamentals of human rights ( 2 lectures)
1. Roots of the concept " human rights " Legal-philosophic and theoretic roots of human rights. Greek political philosophy: isonomia and democratia. Natural law teaching. Philosophic foundation ( I. Kant). Liberal political philosophy ( J. Locke, J.S. Mill, J.J. Roeuseau, B. Constant).
American designers of constitution ( T. Paine, Federalist papers, T. Jefferson). Recent interpretation (H. Arendt, I. Berlin, R.Dworkin, J. Rowls).

2. What are human rights and why is it about right? Distinguishing types of human rights. Relation between human rights and the concept of law (Rowls, Dworkin, Hart). Historical circumstances of first documents and legal-theoretical foundation of these acts. Positive law and human rights. Universalism and specific cultural features of human rights. Tendencies of positivisation, univesalization and establishing of application instruments. Citizen s and political rights, economic and social rights. Third generation rights. To what extent is it correct to distinguish the rights according to "generations".

- Basic principles and documents ( 3 lectures)
1. Establishing international human rights standards. Democracy and human rights. Legitimization of system and human rights ( rule of law). Non-democratic systems and human rights protection. Concept of rights and socio-cultural values. Cultural diversity, identities and ideological diversity ( western tradition, Islam, developing countries / debtor countries and globalization, protection of minorities: religion, gender, sex, age / universalism and relativism). Monitoring and measuring the level of human rights respect and European integration.
2. Target, contents and structure of main documents. Main documents on human rights - lists of rights and protection mechanisms. Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations Charter, Universal Declaration of Human and Civil Rights, ECHR, European Social Charter, Draft of European Constitution. European system and documents. Reports on human rights. Regional protection mechanisms. Globalization processes, list enlargement and protection institution.
3. Institutions and practice of international institutions for human rights protection. UN Human Rights Commission: foundations and practice, Commission for Discrimination Prevention, High Commissioner for Human Rights, ECOSOC, UN Commission for Women s Rights. European Council: main institutions. European Commission and human rights protection, European Court for Human Rights: establishing, development, judiciary practice and new competences. Venetian Commission. Procedure pursuant to European Social Charter.

- Basic human rights- legal regulations and practice ( 5 lectures and 3 workshops)

1. Basic rights: rights and their restrictions. List of rights and restrictive mechanisms: necessary in democratic society, legal regulation, proportionality. Strict interpretation of restrictions. Targets of restrictions and enlarged interpretation practice.
2. Basic political human rights. Rights of vote, right to fair trial, good governance. Freedom of thought, speech, association and other political rights. Property rights. Right to information.
3. Right to respect of home, privacy, equality of spouses. Right to education. Discrimination prohibition. Equality of gender. Children s rights.
4. Economic social rights: origin, development and enlargement. Relation to other types of human rights. New technologies and human rights. International documents on social rights. Status of persons with special needs. Environmental protection, new medical technologies, bioethics and human rights
5. Procedure of the International Court for Human Rights : judicial practice and international standards.

- Workshops (practice) Reports on status of human rights, report the case to the court, cases of violation.

Final topics: Human rights in the Republic of Croatia: status, proposals, commitments, reports, adoption of international standards.

Cognitive Skills:

Knowledge and understanding

After successfully completing the course, students will be able to:

- define: main concepts such as human rights, right to life, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, economic social rights, rights of the third generation and basic mechanisms of monitoring and protecting human rights before national and international institutions. Processes of privatisation and universalisation of human rights are especially explained.

- explain: why human rights, although they historically belong to politically ideologica programs, are rights sui generis, and why are they today constituent part and standard of democratic society and rule of law.

- explain: why human rights change their contents with time and use court practice and international documents that determine the course and significance of these changes

Application

After successfully completing the course, students will be able to:

- group and describe: three generations of human rtights, the earliest were political and individual rights, then economic and social rights, and today also rights of the third generation (f.e. law of environment). All three complnents are united by the original idea that there are roghts which are independent from the order of individual national states or regimes

- understand: why human rights are the ultima linea explanation of constitutional basis of legislation. They are also the criterion of legitimacy of legal norms and the basis of teleological interpretation; human rights are not just proclamation and political principles, but also have amechanism of judicial and political protection

- apply: why it is absolutely crucial toi understand human rights, both contents and practice, in order to efficiently and responsibly perform any type of application of rights. It is also important to know and be able to apply mechanisms of protection that are supplementary and complementary to the executuive and judicial power, the legal profession, public adminstrator or civil servant, and especially in social work.

outline: by the completion of the course and without special instructions, students should ex abrupto indicate basic concepts of human rights, original and legal philosophical foundation, structure and significance of international documents, constitutional and legal grounds and the meaning of solutions of individual cases.

Analysis

After successfully completing the course, students will be able to:

- demonstrate: course contents which are divided in clear units. Every unit begins by a presentation of a concrete provblem through presentation os cases, international and comparative practice, solution of instructive cases and indication of de lege ferenda development.

- categorise: systematisation of human tights, which is the basic course of positivisation in many acts, and turning political requests into legal regulations. Codifications that were adjusted in 1950s are today developing in many special areas (rights of women, asylum and so on). The course structure is based on these categorisations.

- analyse: knowledge about human rights, which are still pedagogical novelty in professional education. Instead of grammatical and textual interpretation, legal rationalisation and understanding of the logic of regulation, interpretation and conclusion is required. The course is complementary to descriptive and normative descriptions of public administration, because the focus is on possibilities and development of skills of understanding and analčysing administrative phenomena in their systematic connection.

- compare: by descriptive and typological analysis, both on the level of theoretical generalisations and on the level of description of research and concrete cases, especially because of the dialogue method of inductive teaching based on cases, students will be able to compare rights of different generations, mechanisms of realisation of human rights on the international and national level, and be able to detect the institutions that are concerned with promotion and realisation of human rights.

Practical and Generic Skills:

Course contents and method are directed towards gaining practical skills and understanding the concept of human rights. After classes and testing, students are expected to understand the function and concept of human rights. Through this course the students will also develop presentation skills.

Matching Assessments to Learning Outcomes:

Knowledge is tested by written and oral examinations.

During classess students write at least three papers through which their knowledge, dedication to learning and personal progress are monitored. Written form of testing knowledge supplements the activity and group learning, and students have to demonstrate individual capacity of understanding basic terms, recognise relevance of topics discussed in class andunderstand real and political limitations. Students are expectef to actively participate and publicly present their standpoints.

Written examination

It consists of essays written after discussions on individual topics. Empty phrases and lack of personal standpoints is not tolerated.

Oral examination

Oral examination is an exception, because knowledge is tested successively and continuously, and is applied only in special cases (persons with special needs etc.)

Consultations schedule:

doc. dr. sc. Antonija Petričušić :
Tuesdays from 12 am - 1 pm
Location: Trg Republike Hrvatske 3, room 305/III