Children's Human Rights course

Course description:
This course situates children’s human rights within a multidisciplinary and integrated framework while providing students with the foundational knowledge and advocacy skills needed for application when working with and for children in vulnerable circumstances. It incorporates local, national and global perspectives.  

Specifically, students will engage in critical thinking about children’s human rights and their relationship with: children’s realities, child-focused practices, and policy/program development across disciplines and within multiple jurisdictions. 

The main course topics will include:

historical and theoretical contexts of children’s human rights and concepts of childhood; the current human rights framework;
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), including its relationship to practices and policy development specific to children; and case studies addressing current issues pertinent to children.

Critiques of human rights will highlight implementation challenges and complexities within specific practice and policy contexts in Canada and elsewhere when applicable.

About the instructors:
This course will be co-taught by two scholars with domestic and international experience: Dr. Ziba Vaghri, Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria and Dr. Nancy Bell, Adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria. Their collective experience includes contributions to local, national and international initiatives specific to children in vulnerable circumstances, child health and children’s human rights and they have worked with such organizations as children’s commissions, human rights commissions, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations. Please see the School of Child and Youth Care website for more detail.