Course

Syllabus

Coursework and Assignments

Advocate for Human Rights and US Human Rights Network, A practitioner’s

Guide to Human Rights Monitoring, Documenting, and Advocacy, January 2011, pp 65-84 Advocate for Human Rights, Human Rights Tools for a Changing Word, January 2015-selected appendix

Suggested Readings:

• Selected sections of the United Nations Manual on Human Rights Monitoring to be indicated by the instructor. The original and revised version of the manual can be accessed through the following link: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/PublicationsResources/Pages/MethodologicalMaterials.aspx
• Note the instructor will give you a list of reports to analyse. Guest: TBD

Assignment 12:

• Meeting with Elisa– 15 minute time slots.
• Rubric: The purpose of this meeting is to ensure ongoing work, proper group participation by all, and how to incorporate the comments made by your fellow classmates. The time slots are available as follows:

Please choose TWO options and submit the options (as a group) into Assignment 12 of the D2L. I will try and accommodate you all to the best that I can and send out a schedule in due course.

If I find that there is a preference for more AM or PM slots, I will revise the times accordingly – have no fear!

Value 3 points (points awarded after the actual meeting!

Assignment 13:

Submit as a group a draft of your work thus far so that I might be able to properly review your work output and gauge your progress.

Rubric: This must be a proper draft of where you are and what you have done, showing me the development and emergence of your project and adherence to your ‘action plan’!

Value 5 points

Assignment 14:

Submit your thoughts to this week’s VT (entitled VT Guest Lecture 4) about the guest lecture, including queries or follow up points you desire to know about. What impression did the guest lecturer make and what information did you acquire from the guest lecture that assisted you in understanding strategic litigation and advocacy? Please note in the D2L Assignment 14 section that you have submitted a VT. I will assign a group to compose a thank you note to our guest lecture. This entails a thank you note to the guest lecturer of 2-3 paragraphs, followed by a collated question list of questions your colleagues have raised (editing repetitive queries) and comments from students.

Value 5 points

Week 6: Cultural Rights

Guest: TBD

Assignment 15: TBD Project advancement

Value 5 points

Assignment 16:

COLLECTIVE CLASS Number TWO: Each group MUST set up a VT with the following title:

COLLECTIVE CLASS TWO – [TITLE OF GROUP PROJECT/ NAMES]

Your group will summate the project and the work your group has done thus far, with a view to presenting your work to your colleagues.

Please note (as a GROUP) in Assignment 16 of the D2L when you have made a VT submission. Value 5 points

Assignment 17:

Each group must comment on ALL other groups, offering assistance, insight, and advice, along with potential ideas to assist the group in their project. Rubric: It is important for you ALL to see what your fellow classmates are doing and offer your own thoughts, comments, and advice to your peers. Please note in Assignment 17 of the D2L when you have made your comments to the other groups.

Value 5 points

Week Seven Putting the Principles Into Practice

This week is to work on your project.

Week Eight Putting the Principles Into Practice

Assignments: Assignment 18

Submission of final work to the D2L as a group and individual reflection on the course. Value 30 points

This is going to be a project-oriented course where we will have you work, in groups, on an actual strategic litigation/advocacy type-of project for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This kind of project requires a high level of professionalism and an investment of time and effort that goes BEYOND the course. In fact, you will deal with deadlines, the United Nations diplomacy, complex cultural contexts. The course required the students to be particularly culturally sensitive, detail-oriented, openminded, good team players, and able to work independently. Even if these skills will be developed/improved during the course, what is required is that the students understand that these are essential priority skills for this course.

Remember – this is the MA program establishing external work for you to operate with the United Nations system on a serious project – meaning the reputation of the MA program, as well as your reputation, is at stake. Thus, it is a big responsibility and demands your attention, time, devotion, and energy towards this course.

The responsibilities mean that:

1. You are prepared and ready to work with a group (3 students) in a cohesive, responsible,and organized manner.
2. Youwill devote time towards the allotted project, which will be determined by the lecturer, pursuant to the needs of mandate, the perceived capacity of the group, linguistic skills, and the projects that The lecturer will try to accommodate the interests of the group, but that is not always possible;
3. Youwill dedicate yourself to work at hand, without excuses of time or other The lecturer will provide a list of projects where you can signal your desired focus.

The course will operate as follows.

• Each week you will have a substantive class on specific indigenous collective human rights and a lecture and/or readings materials on an advocacy/strategic litigation tool.
• In the first few days of the course, you will create a group with three other students and start looking at the available projects, noting your preference for a particular project.
• You are NOT guaranteed the project of your choice, so please be aware of the possibility that you might be assigned a different project.
• As such, it is recommended that you look at ALL of the available projects and not just settle for the first project that catches your group’s interest.
• After you have been assigned a project, your group will meet with the lecturer on a weekly basis, as well as meeting at least TWICE with the supervisor of your project (subject to their availability).
• At the group meetings, I expect the entire group to attend (we will all try and work around each other’s schedules).

Further, we will have TWO COLLECTIVE CLASS meetings to discuss and think about the projects (in Weeks Four and Six). I will conduct these as Voice Threads (VT) where your group or a group representative will summate the work your group has done thus far, the direction and means for a successful outcome that your group is taking, and the projected outcome. Each group must comment on ALL other groups, offering assistance, insight, and advice, along with potential ideas to assist the group in their project.

Note that during the course, I can ask you to conduct specific research to support urgent needs that can emerge during the UNSRIP work.

Note that the readings indicated in the syllabus are tentative, so check on D2L for the final list.

Grade Breakdown

All based on attending required sessions, being an active participant in your group, complete assignment and work with your supervisor on your project, and providing viable and meaningful work output on an ongoing weekly basis (no last minute one-nighters) according to the shared rubric.

COURSE BREAKDOWN

Week 1: Introduction to the Human Rights System, Indigenous Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

• Watch: two Synchronous classes or recordings (recording available on D2L) Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9vrcgnzD2o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0vT_1gjdWc&t=15s
• Core Legal Documents:
  • C169 – Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_COD E:C169
  • United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wpcontent/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/U NDRIP_E_web.pdf
  • American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples https://www.oas.org/en/sare/documents/DecAmIND.pdf

Readings: Advocate for Human Rights, Human Rights Tools for a Changing Word,

• January 2015- Chapter 2 pp.5-13: https://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/res/byid/9001 SKIM: UN OHCHR, “Indigenous Peoples and the UN Human Rights System: Fact Sheet #9 Rev. 2 (2013) https://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/fs9rev.2.pdf
• Relevant website of Human Rights mechanisms as indicated by the lecturer: https://www.refworld.org/humanrights.html

Extra Reading

• UN OHCHR, “The UN Human Rights Treaty System: Fact Sheet #30 Rev. 1 (2012) (45 pp) https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/FactSheet30Rev1.pdf

Assignment 1:

• Please review the group project list (in the Contents section of the D2L) and think about what project you would like to tackle.
• Then, go to the Voice Thread (VT) Introductions and within this VT that I will set up, introduce yourself to me and your colleagues answering the questions I posted, and note potential group projects that interest you.
• Please review and listen to each other to get to know one another and find two other people with potentially similar interests.
• Start making contact with like-minded colleagues to initiate your group formation.

Please submit to Assignment 1 noting you have made a VT comment.

• Rubric: This will serve as the basis for forming a group of THREE people with whom you will work on your group project.

Assignment 2:

Submit your thoughts to this week’s lessons and answer the questions following the rubric.

Please note in the D2L Assignment 2 section that you have submitted a VT. Value 5 points

Assignment 3:

Creating a group and choosing a project – please engage your fellow classmates(!) and start to form a group along with TWO project titles that most interest your group.

Submit into Assignment 3 of the D2L stating the people within your group.

Value 2 points

NOTE: Regarding the choosing of project work, I will try to accommodate your needs but I CANNOT promise the exact project that your group might desire, so please be aware of that and bear with me.

Week 2: Monitoring Human Rights Abuses: research methods for advocacy and documenting human rights abuses; Indigenous right to self-determination.

• Watch: Synchronous class and a recording (recording available on D2L)

Readings:

• Advocate for Human Rights, Human Rights Tools for a Changing Word, January 2015 Chapter 3
• OHCHR, Manual of Human Rights Monitoring, Part IV Chapter 13: Human Rights Reporting
• https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/Chapter13-MHRM.pdf
• International Work Groups on Indigenous Affairs-IWGIA “Indigenous Peoples’ Rights to Autonomy and Self-Government as a Manifestation of The Right To Self-Determination” 2019,
• https://www.iwgia.org/images/documents/Recommendations/Autonomi_report_UK.pdf

Extra readings

• https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/UNDG_training_16EN.pdf

Assignment 4:

• Meeting with Elisa – 30 minute time slots.
• Rubric: The purpose of this meeting is to identify the ways and means for engaging your project and beginning to create a plan of implementation!
• Value 2 points (points awarded after the actual meeting AND after a viable ‘action plan’ has been submitted AFTER our meeting)

Assignment 5:

Submit your thoughts to this week’s lessons and answer the questions following the rubric.

Please note in the D2L Assignment 5 section that you have submitted a VT.

Value 5 points

Readings

• January 2015 Appendix C. Best Practices: Using Popular Social Media Platforms for Effective Human Rights Advocacy
• TBD

Guest Speaker: Leslie Ann Epperson

Assignment 6:

Submit your thoughts to this week’s VT (entitled VT Guest Lecture 1) about the guest lecture, including queries or follow up points you desire to know about. What impression did the guest lecturer make and what information did you acquire from the guest lecture that assisted you in understanding advocacy and strategic litigation ?

Please note in the D2L Assignment 5 section that you have submitted a VT.

Value 5 points

I will assign a group to compose a thank you note to our guest lecture. This entails a thank you note to the guest lecturer of 2-3 paragraphs, followed by a collated question list of questions your colleagues have raised (editing repetitive queries) and comments from students.

Assignment 7:

Contact your project person and create a suitable time slot for a group meeting (suggested days and times noted below – with deference to the NGO person and their busy time schedule, along with of course your fellow group members). I will attempt to work around 7

you all the best I can(!) as I will be included in the meeting as well (as a semi-passive observer…!).

Rubric: The purpose of this meeting is to present to your Project Person the approaches and ideas your group has for taking on the project. You must prepare a 3-5 minute presentation, and be ready to hear the ideas and thoughts of the NGO Project Person as well. At the end of the meeting, after the NGO Project Person has left the Zoom session, please remain in the session as we will discuss the outcome and further work to be done by the group (i.e., remain in the Zoom meeting after the Project Person has left). Submit as a group to Assignment 6 of the D2L that you have successfully created a meeting time with your NGO project person noting the time and providing the Zoom link for the meeting. This link should be made available to your group members, the NGO Project Person, and me. NOTE – if there is a clash with another group due to time scheduling, I will let you know!

Value 5 points (awarded after the meeting)

Week 4: Teaching for Human Rights; Free Prior and informed Consent

Watch: video lecture from the instructor (on D2L) Readings: TBD

Guest speaker: TBD

Assignment 8:

• Meeting with Elisa – 15 minute time slots.
• Rubric: The purpose of this meeting is to ensure you are on the right track in the beginning stage of actually implementing your group project and adhering to the created time line for your group.

The time slots are available as follows:

• Please choose TWO options and submit the options (as a group) into Assignment 7 of the D2L. I will try and accommodate you all to the best that I can and send out a schedule in due course.

If I find that there is a preference for more AM or PM slots, I will revise the times accordingly – have no fear!

Value 3 points (points awarded after the actual meeting!)

Assignment 9:

Submit your thoughts to this week’s VT (entitled VT Guest Lecture 1) about the guest lecture, including queries or follow up points you desire to know about. What impression did the guest lecturer make and what information did you acquire from the guest lecture that assisted you in understanding advocacy and strategic litigation ?

Please note in the D2L Assignment 5 section that you have submitted a VT.

Value 5 points

I will assign a group to compose a thank you note to our guest lecture. This entails a thank you note to the guest lecturer of 2-3 paragraphs, followed by a collated question list of questions your colleagues have raised (editing repetitive queries) and comments from students.

Assignment 10:

COLLECTIVE CLASS Number ONE: Each group MUST set up a VT with the following title:

• COLLECTIVE CLASS ONE – [TITLE OF GROUP PROJECT/ NAMES]
• Rubric: Your group will summate the project and the work your group has done thus far, the direction you are taking and the envisioned means for a successful outcome. Include as well the ‘action plan’ you have developed (this alone will NOT suffice!) Please note (as a GROUP) in Assignment 10 of the D2L when you have made a VT submission. Value 5 points

Assignment 11:

• Each group must comment on ALL other groups, offering assistance, insight, and advice, along with potential ideas to assist the group in their project.
• Rubric: It is important for you ALL to see what your fellow classmates are doing and offer your own thoughts, comments, and advice to your peers. Please note in Assignment 11 of the D2L when you have made your comments to the other groups.

Value 5 points