Selasa, 15 April 2008

Summer Course Human Rights 2003


Seventh Annual Summer Course Human Rights 2003

This year, the seventh edition of the Summer Course on Human Rights was organized by the Netherlands School of Human Rights Research and the Catholic University of Leuven (KLU) with the collaboration of Northwestern University in Chicago. The course was held from 18 to 29 August 2003, and took place at the T.M.C. Asser Institute, The Hague and the Catholic University of Leuven (KLU) respectively. The theme of the course was “From Impunity to Accountability”, by which it focused on the monitoring of human rights at global and regional levels. The course was followed by some young lawyers, social scientists, human rights activists, and students from all continents.
An important feature of this course is that it provides knowledge of the latest legal insights as well as of recent political developments that are relevant to human rights issues. It is intended to broaden young professionals’ and researchers’ human rights expertise with respect to substantive and institutional aspects of international promotion and protection of human rights, and to prepare them for further scholarly research.
During the first week at the T.M.C. Asser Institute in The Hague, the programme was focussed on the discussion of monitoring mechanisms at the universal and regional level, and on institutional and procedural aspects in particular cases. The participants were given a chance to visit several important places such as the Peace Palace, the International Court of Justice, and the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Over the last weekend in August, the participants were also able to go to Strasbourg, where they spent a day meeting with various staff members of the Council of Europe, including one of the judges and a representative of the Commission on the Prevention of Torture.
In the second week, at the Catholic University of Leuven, the attention was directed to certain issues of substantive law, such as freedom of expression, women’s and children’s rights, and human rights in the transition to democracy. The programme also included a visit to the European Union institutions and the NATO in Brussels. Here the participants had discussions with the representatives of several prominent local and international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and the Coalition for the International Criminal Court. The Summer Course was concluded with a moot court. And at the end of the course, the participants were awarded certificates of attendance and the alumni pin by the Committee of the Summer Course on Human Rights 2003 at the Catholic University of Leuven.
Outside the class-room participants often spent their time exploring the surroundings together while discussion their experiences, and taking pictures in The Hague and Leuven. The participants felt that they had learnt as much from the formal lectures as from discussions with professors and other fellow participants. Moreover, the Summer Course helped the participants in finding possible ways to work as young professionals all over the world and to dedicate themselves to human rights issues.

Deni K. Yusup
Leiden University, The Netherlands

Sumber:
NEWSLETTER "SCHOOL OF HUMAN RIGHTS RESEARCH"
Volume 7, Issue 3, September 2003

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