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The
Human Rights and Democracy Programme at THS (Stockholm School
of Theology) is a two-year programme comprising a number of different
courses dealing with various aspects of Human Rights and Democracy.
For
THS’s part, the creation of the Human Rights and Democracy
programme can be seen as a result of the fact that the principals
of the school itself – the
Baptist Union and the Mission Covenant Church – have historically
been engaged in issues related to the development of democracy as well
as a commitment to international development and to the safeguarding
of individual rights and freedoms.
The Human
Rights and Democracy Programme is run by THS but the programme has
its own steering committee where THS co-operates with the Swedish NGO
Foundation for Human Rights and the Academy of Democracy (a network
of Swedish organisations).
The three
organisations began planning for the programme in 1995, and the first
courses were offered in 1997. At first, there was only one year of
courses, while the current two-year programme started in 2003.
By means
of an interdisciplinary curriculum, THS has the ambition of giving
to our students a rather thorough knowledge of the technical features
of the human rights systems as well as a deeper insight into dilemmas,
challenges and moral principles related to human rights and democracy.
Thus, in the course of the programme, issues dealt with include more
legalistic topics, such as international treaties and systems for the
protection of human rights in addition to ethics and other philosophical
perspectives.
THS strives
towards offering a complement to the academic perspective in the form
of a more practical, case-oriented approach. To achieve these ambitions,
many of our lecturers are practitioners of one kind or another. Some
are professional journalists or lawyers, others civil servants in governmental
offices or activists from non-governmental organisations.
The Human
rights and democracy programme consists of several smaller units. Students
can follow the whole programme or just one individual unit. Students
finishing the two-year programme receive a University Diploma in Human
Rights. Courses offered include: Equal Value and Equal Rights, Freedom
of Religion and Conscience, Human Rights and the Challenges of Philosophy,
Women and Human Rights, The Rights of the Child, Human Rights Conventions
as Practical Tools, The Role of NGOs in promoting Human Rights. |
