Postgraduate Course: Legislative Data for Children's Rights (fusion on-site) (EFIE11335)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course explores the UNCRC and other international mechanisms as a basis of children's rights to protection and empowerment. The course will focus on developing skills in accessing international resources and translating them into national contexts. It will enable students to examine the relationship between law and policy at national and international levels. |
| Course description |
This course focuses on the UNCRC, which is a comprehensive treaty that engages civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights with specific focus on how to ensure these rights for all individuals under age 18. The rights contained in the treaty are indivisible and inter-dependent and, as a result, are optimized when implemented as a holistic framework including both legal and non-legal measures. Each of the 196 states parties to the treaty is responsible for implementing children's rights as outlined in the UNCRC, including an obligation to keep pace with interpretations of the Convention as they develop internationally.
In order to maximize the versatility of the UNCRC within the UN governance system, students will develop different knowledge and skills in each phase. Cumulatively, this will enable them to usefully read and apply international normative standards in local settings.
Students do not need any previous experience in studying law to take this course.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - On-Site Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- Unless the lecturer or tutor indicates otherwise you should assume the session is being recorded.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 20 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 14,
Summative Assessment Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
83 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
The course will be assessed by means of the following assessment components:
1) Group Research Presentation (100%)
Group research presentation (20 minutes) with PowerPoint on issues tracing the international to the local reflection of the UNCRC.
(20% of mark will be peer review of group members)
(Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4) |
| Feedback |
Formative feedback will be given on research bibliographies and planned paper structure following submission.
Summative feedback will be given on the assessment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the principles and current relating to protecting and empowering children through the UNCRC framework.
- Demonstrate originality and creativity in the development and application of new knowledge, understanding and practices.
- Collaborate with others to bring about new thinking in a specialist subject (children's rights).
- Communicate children's rights law and policy to a range of audiences with different levels of knowledge/ expertise.
- Critically assess how states comply with the international obligations defined in by the UNCRC and its evolving interpretation.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Essential Reading:
R Smith, International Human Rights Law (8th Edition - or later edition - OUP, 2017): Chapter 3: 'United Nations' and Chapter 5: 'UN Structure'.
O Okafor, 'Chapter 3: International Human Rights Fact-Finding Praxis: A TWAIL Perspective' in P Alston and S Knuckey, The Transformation of Human Rights Fact-Finding (Oxford, 2016).
K McCall-Smith, 'To Incorporate the CRC - Is this Really the Question?' (2019) 23 International Journal of Human Rights 425.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), General Comment No.12: The Right of the Child to be Heard, 1 July 2009, CRC/C/GC/12.
CRC, General Comment No. 14: The Right of the Child to Have His or Her Best Interests Taken as Primary Consideration (art. 3, para. 1), 29 May 2013, CRC/C/GC/14.
J Tobin, 'Understanding Children's Rights: A Vision Beyond Vulnerability', Nordic Journal of International Law 84 (2015): 155.
Kilkelly, U., Lundy, L. & Byrne, B. (eds.), Incorporating the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into National Law (Intersentia 2021).
E Brems, Ellen Desmet and Wouter Vandenhole, eds., Children's Rights Law in the Global Human Rights Landscape (London: Routledge, 2017).
Recommended Reading:
BA Andreassen, H Sano and S McInerney-Lankford, Research Methods in Human Rights: A Handbook (Edward Elgar, 2017).
G de Beco, 'Human Rights Impact Assessments', Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 27:2 (2009): 139.
L Payne, 'Child Rights Impact Assessment as a Policy Improvement Tool', The International Journal of Human Rights 23 (2019): 408.
Further Reading:
H Charlesworth and E Larking, Human Rights and the Universal Periodic Review: Rituals and Ritualism (CUP, 2015): especially Chapter 5 (H Collister, 'Rituals and Implementation in the Universal Periodic Review and the Human Rights Treaty Bodies') and Introduction Chapter (H Charlesworth, 'Introduction: The Regulatory Power of the Universal Periodic Review').
S Cohen, 'Government Responses to Human Rights Reports: Claims, Denials, and Counterclaims' (1996) 18 Human Rights Quarterly 517.
M Kanetake, 'UN Human Rights Treaty Monitoring Bodies before Domestic Courts' (2018) 67 International and Comparative Law Quarterly 201.
M Freeman, Children's Rights (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Research & Enquiry (independent research): conduct research and enquiry into relevant international law relating to children's rights.
- Personal effectiveness (team working): an ability to work collaboratively with people from a range of cultures and backgrounds.
- Communication (written): be able to communicate complex ideas and arguments in writing.
- Research & Enquiry (problem solving): identify and evaluate options in order to solve complex problems.
- Research & Enquiry (problem solving): identify and evaluate opportunities to advocate for and embed a child rights based approach in local settings. |
| Keywords | UNCRC,Localisation of Human Rights,International Law,Policy,EFI,Level 11,PG,Children's Rights |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kasey McCall-Smith
Tel: (0131 6)51 4524
Email: kasey.mccall-smith@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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