Professors:
- Duygu Çiçek, Counsel, Legal Vice Presidency, Environmental and International Law Practice Group (LEGEN)
- Margaret Roggensack, Interim Executive Director, International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), Washington, D.C.
Course Description:
Human rights and development have evolved largely in separate tracks, and even, to a large degree, separate worlds. However, times have changed. There are now clear spheres of convergence between these fields in theory, applied research and practice. The Human Rights and Development course will critically examine key features of this dynamic landscape, through a mix of lectures, case studies, group work discussions and practical exercises. The course will explore the contemporary conceptions and meanings of human rights and development, laying the ground for a more detailed examination of the points of convergence - as well as tensions - between these fields in both theory and practice. Consideration will be given to how international human rights standards and principles have emerged and how they have influenced public policy debates concerning international aid, development financing, infrastructure investment, engagement with fragile states, the MDGs and the SDGs and climate change. There will be a strong institutional focus within the program, with a close look at the roles and functions of international and regional development banks and other financing institutions, the Group of 20 industrialized countries (G20) and business entities, set against political debates on human rights and development in the United Nations’ inter-governmental and human rights bodies.