Undergraduate Certificate in Global Human Rights

The Undergraduate Global Human Rights Certificate is open to all undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania—College, Engineering, Wharton, Nursing, and LPS.

The Undergraduate Global Human Rights Certificate is administered through the International Relations Program, and provides undergraduates with an opportunity to pursue a multi-disciplinary and in-depth study of core international human rights documents, treaties and mechanisms. Students interested in pursuing this program should see Dr. Tomoharu Nishino.

The Undergraduate Global Human Rights Certificate aims to promote human rights at Penn with undergraduate students through a variety of cross-disciplinary courses. Human rights have assumed great prominence as globalization has advanced. Not only are human rights of vital practical importance in fields like international politics and development strategies, but problems in the academic domain are increasingly being assessed in relation to human rights. The study of human rights now constitutes a portion of most disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities as well as the professions, including the fields of medicine, law, and engineering. This certificate accords with the United Nations’ second phase of the World Programme for Human Rights Education (WPHRE) that began in 2010 and focuses on institutions of higher education.

Professor Henry Teune, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania for 50 years, held the firm view that widespread knowledge of human rights would further the observance of such rights. In spring 2008, he explored with colleagues at Penn ideas for ways to harness the interests of faculty across the University and the human rights offerings in various Schools to present a curriculum for students. In the fall of 2010, the School of Arts and Sciences decided to award graduate students who had completed the required coursework. with a Graduate Certificate in Interdisciplinary Studies in Global Human Rights.

The program has since generated a great deal of interest among undergraduate students at Penn, some having completed the coursework for the Graduate Certificate. In the Fall of 2022, the Committee overseeing the Graduate Certificate in Global Human Rights decided to create an undergraduate certificate program. Students meeting the requirements of the Certificate will be recognized with a Letter and Certificate of Completion, and will be permitted to list the Undergraduate Global Human Rights Certificate among their accomplishments while at Penn on their resumes. (This is not a minor, and will not result in a transcript annotation.)

Eligibility

All undergraduate students admitted to a baccalaureate degree program at the University of Pennsylvania are eligible to take courses leading to the Undergraduate Global Human Rights Certificate.

Requirements

To qualify for the certificate, you must take a total of five (5) courses relating to international human rights.

One of the five courses must be either PSCI 1406 International Human Rights OR PSCI 3401 International Law
Four additional courses to be chosen from:

List of approved undergraduate human rights courses. (see below)
Any graduate level course counting towards the Graduate Human Rights Certificate. See the list of approved coures (bottom of page).

All five courses for the certificate must be completed for a letter grade, and must receive a grade of B or higher. Any class that is audited or taken on a P/F basis will not count towards the certificate.
In keeping with the interdisciplinary goals of the certificate, students may not take more than 3 courses in any given academic department, program, or school other than the College. (As undergraduates, all of your coursework for the certificate may be in the College, but no more than 3 in any given department or program.)

Petitioning Non-Approved Courses

You may petition up to two (2) of your five courses outside the preapproved list by submitting a Petition Form to Dr. Nishino. The petitions are considered on a case-by-case basis. Three kinds of courses may be petitioned to count towards the certificate.

Courses that focus on issues and areas that can be illuminated or informed by using a human rights analysis, but which do not expressly address international human rights as part of the course design. In such courses, students must write a paper or submit a project explicitly referencing an international human rights document, treaty, agreement, or mechanism
Courses taught on a one-off basis by standing faculty, visiting faculty or adjunct faculty and a significant portion of the course design explicitly address international human rights.
Independent study or senior thesis courses. The output of such courses must explicitly analyze an international human rights document, treaty, agreement or mechanism. Students may petition to use an independent study course towards the certificate only once. Similarly, in majors with a two-semester senior thesis, a student may use only the second semester of the two semester sequence towards the certificate, and only upon successful completion of the senior thesis.

Advising

Students should contact Dr. Nishino in the IR Program for course selection advising, and should keep him abreast of courses taken towards the certificate.

Preapproved Courses for the Undergraduate Certificate

AFRC 4200 The US and Human Rights: Policies and Practices
PHIL 2430 Global Justice
PSCI 1403 International Law and Organizations
PSCI 1406 International Human Rights
PSCI 1407 Ethics and International Relations
PSCI 3401 International Law
PSCI 2421 (LALS 2020) International Organization in Latin America
PSCI 2420 (LALS 3020) Diplomacy in the Americas
LGST 2240 Human Rights and Globalization
Any graduate level course approved for the Gradaute Certificate.

Resources for Human Rights Research at Penn

The Penn Libraries now provides online access to two of the most comprehensive databases for human rights research: