Postgraduate Course: Working in Conflict-affected Areas: Understand, Cooperate, and Protect (LAWS11517)
Course Outline
| School | School of Law |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Developed in collaboration with the UN and based on the ten-year experience of the course convenor, this course aims to provide students with a basic "toolbox" of practical skills and strategies to deal with the challenges of working in conflict-affected environments. |
| Course description |
This course is intended for students who contemplate a career in a variety of fields dealing with conflict-affected environments (i.e., UN agencies, humanitarian and development organisations, research institutions, etc.). Beyond strong theoretical knowledge, working in conflict requires a set of specific practical skills which few young professionals are equipped with. Developed in collaboration with the UN and based on the experience of several senior professionals, this course aims to remedy this gap by providing students with a basic "toolbox" of practical skills and strategies to deal with the challenges of violent environments. The course also speaks to the latest developments in conflict and peacemaking, such as the multiplication of non-state actors and the emergence of new technologies. It is centered around three core themes for effective and positive action: understand, cooperate, and protect. Students will benefit from an honest outlook on the daily challenges and mitigation strategies of working in conflict-ridden areas such as Columbia, Kenya, Syria and Ukraine. By the end of the course, they will be able to walk more confidently into the professional world and meaningfully contribute to the alleviation of the consequences of armed conflicts. While this is a legal course and is particularly well suited to students of humanitarian and human rights law, it will also be open to a small number of students of international development and politics.
The course is composed of ten main lessons (excluding the reading week).
Week 1: Leadership and Influencing Skills (Master Class)
After an overview of the objectives, outcomes, and evaluation of the course, students will be introduced to a discussion around privileges, positionality, and self-assessment. This will be followed by a one-hour master class by a UN senior staff (i.e., Assistant Secretary General, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator), on leadership and influencing skills. Geographical focus: Africa and the Middle East*.
Week 2: Protection and self-preservation strategies
Based on the ¿help the helpers¿ approach, this class will provide students with some practical tools of personal development practices and self-awareness, life skills, mental health, and human connection that support the restoration of the nervous system for professionals working in fragile contexts. The class will also include insights from IHL experts at OCHA who work for the protection of vulnerable populations in conflict-ridden areas. Geographical focus: Africa and the Middle East.
Week 3: Problem-solving and creative thinking
This class will challenge students to ¿think out of the box¿ to provide innovative solutions to complex problems such as violations of human rights and forced displacement. This includes strategies based on art that focus on grassroots participation and complement traditional approaches to IHL and HRL. This will highlight the crosscutting nature of legal expertise that should infuse any initiative targeted at conflict-affected communities. Geographical focus: Latin America.
Week 4: Assessment, monitoring and evaluation
This class will cover the whole process of monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment, which is of increasing importance to practitioners, donors and grassroots communities. A particular focus will be brought to research and data analysis skills that are critical to students¿ academic journey and future professional lives. This class will link to Week 3 by providing students with existing programmes developed around innovative approaches whose values have been harnessed as a powerful force for conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Geographical focus: Global.
Week 5: Managing the distance: building bridges with conflict-affected communities (Master Class)
How to protect human rights and improve the humanitarian situation of conflict-affected communities at a distance? This is the question this lesson will attempt to answer. After discussing the challenges of forced immobility and distance, students will be offered a Master Class by a UN senior staff (i.e.,¿UNDP Resident, Humanitarian Coordinator). The expert will highlight some practical skills and lessons learned from their experience coordinating humanitarian efforts to reach conflict-ridden areas. Geographical focus: Africa, Latin America, Middle East.
Week 6: Adaptation in negotiation: speaking to the good ¿ and the bad guys (Master Class)
Students will be offered a Master Class by a UN senior political advisor and/or a leading barrister specialising in international law, terrorism and human rights litigation. The expert(s) will build on their experience as international mediators in the wider Middle East to discuss the challenges and strategies of promoting the rule of law in cultural contexts where moral and legal norms are often different than in Europe. Geographical focus: Wider Middle East.
Week 7: Research, policymaking, development: do I have to choose?
This class will try to address a critical question for students of law: what is next and how to use the legal knowledge gained at the university? It will highlight the crosscutting and multidisciplinary nature of legal expertise by offering insights from professionals who work between multiple sectors related to conflict resolution and peacemaking. Geographical focus: Africa and the Middle East.
Week 8: Fundraising and partnership with donors
This class will shed light on crucial actors, without whom the humanitarian and development cycles would break, funders and donors. Indeed, before they can be part of any intervention, professionals working in conflict-affected areas will first need to secure the financial and political support of key individuals and institutions. This class will equip students with key advocacy and relational skills that will complement the leadership and influencing skills gained in Week 1. Geographical focus: Middle East.
Week 9: Media in Conflict
This class will investigate the role played by media during conflicts, especially how different kinds of media influence the allocation of humanitarian aid. This class is particularly relevant given the record shortfall¿faced by the UN since 2021 between the funding required and the funding received. This also has key implications for the general public¿s perception of issues related to HRL and IHR. Students will benefit from insights from journalists covering armed conflicts and will be equipped with additional strategies for effective communication and data analysis. Geographical focus: Middle East and Europe.
Week 10: New technologies and peacemaking (Master Class)
Building on PeaceRep¿s leading expertise in ¿PeaceTech¿, this master class will discuss the potential of new technologies to support legal thinking around issues of prosecution of war crimes, protection of human rights and improvement of the humanitarian situation of those affected by conflicts. It will feature several tools and visualisations created by PeaceRep, such as the PA-X Tracker and the PA-X Peace Agreements databases. Geographical focus: Ukraine.
* Please note that case studies across the module might be subject to change depending on the availability of external experts.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 32 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
1. Personal Involvement and active participation (20%)«br /»
2. Policy Brief (30%)«br /»
3a. Innovative Humanitarian Intervention (50%)«br /»
OR«br /»
3b. Real-life Mediation Scenario (50%) |
| Feedback |
Students will be required to submit an outline of all their written summative assessments (components 2 and 3 below) to the course convenor for early feedback. They will also receive continuous feedback in class (for instance while going through the methodology of each assessment) and/or during face-to-face individual discussion (upon their request). |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical awareness of the challenges to practically uphold legal frameworks related to HRL and IHL in conflict-affected environments (at the micro, meso, and macro levels).
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of how the latest developments in conflict and peacemaking (multiplication of non-state actors, emergence of new technologies, uptake of social media) impact upon theoretical and normative frameworks for HRL and IHL.
- Understand the relationship between all the actors involved in the humanitarian and development cycles, including i\) funders, ii) policymakers, iii) warring parties, iv) grassroots communities.
- Try and adopt more rounded epistemological views of key HR and IHL approaches and stakeholders across different settings.
- Apply a number of skills and methodological tools acquired during the course to practical situations.
|
Reading List
In an attempt to promote a more inclusive reading list and to encourage critical skills, students will be provided with a number of resources weekly:
- A mixture of academic resources (article/book chapter) and non-academic (policy document/archive/documentary/blog or opinion/dataset/investigative journalism).
- A couple of short videos recorded by professionals working in conflict-affected environments. Note that videos will be uploaded on Learn and are not listed in the reading list below.
- A diverse range of authors, with efforts made to include authors who identify as non-male and non-Western authors. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. Skills and abilities in Research and Enquiry
-Appraise the importance of cultural and political contexts in understanding various forms of legal frameworks and how they can be harnessed to protect human rights and dignity.
-Apply some of the studied approaches to the evaluation of current conflicts and peace initiatives across the world, to interpret and analyse empirical data at an advanced level and according to competing perspectives and explanatory paradigms.
-Demonstrate familiarity with a range of sources, including international treaties, constitutions, academic sources, policy outputs based on empirical data, and documents from regional and international institutions.
-Engage in a research project at a PG level in consideration of its targeted audience and policy implications.
2. Skills and abilities in Personal and Intellectual Autonomy
-Demonstrate self-awareness and resilience. Students will develop these qualities as they are faced with a new kind of material and a different approach to understanding law in conflict-affected environments.
-Demonstrate an independent approach to learning, thinking self-critically and creatively and problem-solving.
-Reflect on their positionality and the impact it might have on their actions and how they are perceived in the professional world.
3. Skills and abilities in Communication
-Construct and synthesise arguments critically for both written and oral presentations from different sources and material, adapting to the discursive conventions and genres of both academic and policy-oriented standards.
-Actively listen and moderate dialogue and debate in respect of others and their opinions.
-Participate in and reflect on collaborative group work.
4. Skills and abilities in Personal Effectiveness
-Demonstrate work prioritisation and time management skills by preparing for class and delivering a number of summative assignments during the semester.
-Design and plan a research project at a PG level.
-Work as a team for some of the learning activities planned by the course convenor (i.e. media commentary).
5. Technical/practical skills
-Apply some of the studied strategies to undertake professional work in conflict-affected environments
-Design and critically assess humanitarian and development interventions
-Use theoretical and practical knowledge to inform policy and best practices.
|
| Keywords | Conflict,peace,practice,humanitarian |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Juline Beaujouan-Marliere
Tel:
Email: J.Beaujouan-Marliere@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Susanna Wickes
Tel:
Email: Susanna.Wickes@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage