Human Rights Minor

Western's Human Rights minor is an interdisciplinary program that provides students the opportunity to become familiar with theoretical, historical, and comparative perspectives on human rights, domestic and international. The minor in Human Rights is a combined program of study offered through Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies (FCIS) and the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity (RWI). Courses within this vibrant learning community contribute to the development of students as well-educated, active, and engaged citizens. The minor works off and expands the core values of the university and supplements academic majors in all university programs/departments.

Human rights education integrates exploration of the questions of human freedom at the core of traditional liberal arts education with a critical examination of the institutions designed to promote and protect human freedom in the past and in the contemporary world. Because of its flexibility, the minor in Human Rights course of study complements any majors within the University.

With 2 core requirements and 93 other university-wide course options, a minor in Human Rights will provide a background for graduate study in an appropriate discipline where scholarship can focus on human rights, or in careers that incorporate human rights advocacy, including journalism, filmmaking, the practice of law or medicine, teaching, policy analysis, or service in government or intergovernmental or nongovernmental entities.