Course Descriptions - Undergraduate Calendar 2023-2024

An introduction to the subject of human rights and to the way it is studied. Questions to be examined include: What are human rights and where do they come from? How are they defined? How are they applied and enforced? What happens when they conflict? The course will draw on Canadian, Indigenous, and international ideas and examples.

A historical and cross-cultural overview and critique of the bases for human rights. This course will allow students to explore key questions related to justice, dignity, liberty, equality, solidarity, and morality. Students will be introduced to a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives through which they will develop an understanding of philosophical and political critiques of human rights.

This course will introduce students to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as the central mechanism for the determination and application of human rights with respect to government action. By studying leading decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, students will gain a greater appreciation of the Charter as a defining feature of the social, political, and legal landscape of Canada, and a better understanding of the role judiciary in interpreting and enforcing rights.

This course will introduce students to historical and contemporary discrimination disputes and controversies through an intersectional analysis of protected grounds of diversity such as gender, race, disability, and sexual orientation. Through this course, students will learn about the role that the Ontario Human Rights Code, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission play as mechanisms that enforce human rights.

A study of the key documents and institutions that shape the manner in which the United Nations deals with human rights issues. The course will culminate in a simulation of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

This course offers students an opportunity to engage in advanced critical examination of philosophical, legal, and political debates underpinning some key contemporary human rights issues. Students will explore these issues through a variety of different methodological approaches and using diverse theoretical frameworks, such as feminist and queer theory, theories of indigeneity, and anti-racism and decolonization.

A comparative examination of the rights challenges faced by diverse Indigenous peoples around the globe. Special attention will be given to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and work being done to protect and advance the rights it enshrines.

Course topics vary. This course will allow students to engage in an in-depth analysis of selected topics in human rights and develop greater awareness of the realities of human rights in a national and/or global context.

Course topics vary. An advanced investigation of selected topics in human rights, this course will provide students with an opportunity to engage in a detailed interdisciplinary examination of a particular subject and develop their analytical and critical capabilities.