Modules E 1, E 3: Labour Conditions and Human Rights

Human rights defenders are people who have the courage to stand up against injustice.

In this online course by Amnesty International, you will follow their stories, learn how they mitigate risks and explore the creative ways they use to speak up. You will find out what drives them to take action, witness what defenders can achieve and discover how you can use your voice to defend your rights and those of others. This is Amnesty International’s third Massive Open Online Course. Be prepared for active learning, connecting with course participants from across the world and to become part of a global community dedicated to taking action to defend human rights everywhere.

According to the UN organization UNCTAD, 80% of trade takes place in global supply chains linked to transnational corporations. Governed by powerful transnational corporations, these global supply chains set the ‘rules of the game’ of today’s global production system. For the majority of workers, this production system translates into poverty wages, excessive working hours, unsafe workplaces and repression of workers’ right to form and join democratic trade unions.

This course offers a careful mix of video lectures and interviews, readings, online resources, and exercises to gain both knowledge and practical skills for promoting decent work in global supply chains. In some countries, the online learning experience will be complemented with local workshops for a truly global learning experience.

This course has begun, but you can enroll at any time! Course materials will be available until February 4th, 2018.

From women to children to indigenous peoples, the rights of marginalized groups the world over are violated daily. These injustices affect not just these groups, but also the stability of our world – and our collective future.

Join this free, massive open online course to learn about the establishment of human rights and their linkages to many other global issues in sustainable development. The course joins legal frameworks and societal contexts to explore the barriers that prevent rights from becoming a reality.

Among the topics covered:

• International human rights frameworks, including specific frameworks for groups including women, children and indigenous peoples
• How global politics affect and form our understanding and regulation of human rights
• The emergence of “inclusive” approaches, and the effects of these approaches on assigning responsibility and action to excluded groups
• The intersectionality inherent to human rights, such as gender and ethnicity and how human rights influence responses to conflict and disaster
• How culture and human rights are brought into conflict, such as in the practice of female genital mutilation
• The rise of “new humanitarianism”
• How human rights are not only key to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5, 10 and 16 (Gender Equality, Reduced Inequalities and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), but also how they affect all of the SDGs