GCU launches MSc Human Rights

Glasgow Caledonian University has marked Human Rights Day 2021 by launching a new qualification focussed on human rights policy and practice.

The sector-leading MSc Human Rights will reflect GCU's research themes of the Common Good and social justice and build on its strengths in public policy and social innovation.

The new course will also advance the University's commitment to gender equality and tackling poverty, within the framework of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. 

With a focus on 'making rights real' to people and policies, the programme aims to be practice focused and policy-oriented and will cover rights-related issues around the climate crisis, hunger and poverty, conflict and dispute, and gender-based violence. 

It will be delivered by a team of academics with strong external profiles and reputations in policy and practice development with government and statutory bodies, as well as in the community and third sector.

Dr Angela O’Hagan, programme leader and Reader at GCU, said: “Human rights are about our everyday lives and experiences, they are not a remote concept. 

“The realisation of rights is about securing basic needs and security whether in relation to housing, food, safety and security, a family life, a clean environment, and good governance and access to justice. 

“These rights and the need for effective institutions to oversee them apply globally, and are as relevant in Scotland as anywhere else in the world.” 

The launch coincides with a commitment from the Scottish Government to incorporate the main international human rights conventions into Scots Law and to reaffirm a commitment and access to the European Convention Rights in Scotland. 

Human Rights Day is observed every year on December 10, the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). 

To find out more visit MSc Human Rights.