Masters Course in Business and Human Rights
Companies are in a unique position to create the resources and infrastructure needed for people to realise their human rights.
However, corporate conduct can also adversely affect the rights of workers, consumers, and communities.
This highly respected Masters-level course, taking place over four weekends between September and December 2024, explores the links between human rights violations and corporate activities.
The course focuses on the importance of international standards in strengthening respect and protection of human rights, as well as what corporate human rights due diligence means in practice for businesses.
For more details on the course, please contact Andrea Mevold Zakariassen andrea.zakariassen@uib.no at the UiB’s Department of Comparative Politics.
Please note, the 2024 course is now fully booked, but you may register on the waiting list and you will be contacted if an available place opens up.
Why apply?
Course Outcomes
Upon completion of the course, you will be able to:
- demonstrate a specialised knowledge of human rights standards expected of companies and the challenges they face meeting them;
- understand how to identify if business practices are consistent with human rights standards and evaluate challenges in detail;
- develop sophisticated approaches based on due diligence assessment methods and tools that companies use in order to ensure respect for human rights;
- communicate your expertise in human rights and business to companies, governments, institutions and other actors.
Course Content
This course will help you understand the interplay between business and human rights, including business impacts, positive and adverse, regardless of corporate intent.
Through expert guidance this course will help you learn about:
- what companies can and cannot do through an introduction to international human rights standards such as the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, ethical norms and legal principles, and corporate duties;
- the dilemmas of operating in spaces where local standards and rules may vary from and sometimes contradict global standards or policies;
- how senior company executives address challenges and conduct due diligence;
- existing initiatives and corporate strategies designed to deal with human rights and business and uphold international standards;
- contemporary challenges in business and human rights including climate, just transitions, conflict, technology, and concerns including discrimination.
Course Details
The first and last course weekends will take place in person in Bergen, Norway, with two intervening weekends taking place virtually. 2024 course dates are below:
Week 1: September 12th - 15th
Week 2: October 4th - 6th
Week 3: October 25th - 27th
Week 4: November 22th - 24th.
Cost for 2024 is NOK 33,000.
The course is hosted by the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen (UiB), the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, and the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB).
Sessions will comprise a mixture of lectures, seminars, and group discussions. All lectures are streamed using Zoom.
All relevant materials, including lecture recordings, will be made available through the course pages at the student portal - MittUiB.
Course Faculty
Learn from individuals at the forefront of making human rights part of everyday business. Faculty changes each year, but some previous teachers have included:
Maryam Al-Khawaja - Bahrainian Human Rights Defender, Rafto Laureate, Copenhagen
Nnimmo Bassey - Mother Earth Foundation, Rafto Laureate, Nigeria
Carine Coudeville - VP Human Rights, Sustainability & Climate Division, TotalEnergies, Paris
Dominique Day - UN Working group for people of African descent, New York/San Francisco, US
Kathryn Dovey - OECD, London/Paris
Frode Elgesem - judge, advocate, Rafto board, Norway’s NCP chair, Oslo
Erika George - Faculty of Law, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Isabel Hilton - Founder, China Dialogue, IHRB IAC, London
Harpreet Kaur - Business and Human Rights Adviser, UNDP Asia-Pacific Hub, Bangkok
Deanna Kemp - University of Queensland, IHRB IAC and Trustee, Australia
Morten Kristiansen - Corporate Attorney, Telenor
Rachel Kyte - Dean, Tufts University, Massachusetts, US
Iain Levine - Human Rights Team, Meta (Facebook), New York
Rae Lindsay - Clifford Chance, IHRB IAC, London
Frank Mugisha - Rafto Laureate, Executive Director, Sexual Minorities in Uganda, Kampala
John Morrison - CEO, IHRB, UK
Sidsela Nyebak - Sustainability Director, Statkraft, Oslo
Beena Pallical - National Commission for Dalit Human Rights, India
Ron Popper - Chief Executive, Global Business Initiative on Human Rights, IHRB IAC and Trustee, Switzerland
Anita Ramasastry - Prof of Law, University of Washington, ex-UN Working Group for Business and Human Rights, IHRB IAC
Nick Robins - Grantham Institute, London School of Economics, London
Sanchita Banerjee Saxena - Professional Faculty, Haas School of Business, UC
Berkeley and Senior Advisor, Article One
Marte Johnsen Stensrud - Sustainability team, Equinor, Stavenger, Norway
Owen Tudor - Deputy General Secretary, ITUC, Brussels
Requirements and Outputs
This course is available to master's students, professionals and anyone interested in business and human rights.
A bachelor's degree or equivalent and at least two years' work experience is required. The course is with 15 ECTS credit points.
Students will be required to complete a semester paper, assigned at the beginning of the semester, of not more than 4,500 words, to be submitted four weeks after the last weekend gathering (grading scale A-F).
For more details on the course, please contact Andrea Mevold Zakariassen andrea.zakariassen@uib.no at the UiB’s Department of Comparative Politics.