Introduction

The programme draw on perspectives from political science, international relations and diplomacy, philosophy, ethics, sociology, psychology and anthropology, allowing students to engage critically with the social, political, cultural and economic issues associated with human rights, governance and development in Zambia and beyond. The master’s programme focuses on enhancing the understanding and analysis of the Zambian social, economic, political and cultural contexts and the application of international and national human rights standards and mechanisms to local human rights and human rights instruments.

The Master’s program in Governance and Human Rights imparts the capacity for critical understanding and the tools required to assess and apply legal and political governance theories, as well as human rights norms and standards. The programme provides students with an opportunity to reflect on development as a governance and human rights issue, and to discuss how development policies impact human rights enhancement. The masters’ programme is important as it challenges the students to reflect on new concepts of development which explicitly interrelate rights, governance and development, and at the same time to address opportunities and constraints to promote good governance, advance development and human rights through development policies and interventions.Thus, the programme will enable students to acquire in-depth knowledge and a broader understanding of the multifaceted nature of human rights, governance and development.

The aim of the programme is to provide students with in-depth knowledge and a deeper understanding of human rights and governance and their implications for sustainable development. The programme also endeavors to provide students with a deeper understanding of human rights instruments and specific human rights that seek to promote, protect and fulfill rights of people, especially groups of people whose rights or entitlements have been violated, neglected or ignored. The programme also enables the students to explore questions such as how a human rights-based approach can promote and ensure better and more sustainable development outcomes; how policy making and programming can be guided by human rights standards and principles; good governance; and whose responsibility it is to fulfil human rights and human development.

This programme further equips Students in Human rights, Governance and Development with an understanding of Human rights, government and its policies, as well as helping a graduate to know things or policies that could bring development.

At this level, it is expected that the graduate shall:

1. Have the knowledge on how to assess the extent to which Zambia and other States have domesticated international and regional human rights instruments (the international and regional institutional frameworks for promoting, protecting and realizing human rights);
2. Critically analyse the implications of human rights standards and principles for sustainable development;
3. Examine the linkages between human rights and good governance;
4. Analyse the implications of good governance for sustainable development;
5. Integrate human rights into all stages of policy development, needs assessment and analysis, priority setting, programme planning and design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation;
6. Advocate for equality and non-discriminatory laws, policies and practices in relation to distribution and provision of resources and social services;
7. Promote capacity building of rights-holders to claim their rights, and duty bearers to meet their obligations of respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights;
8. Ascertain the linkage between human rights and policy development and programming processes: programme planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; and

Communicate the established linkage between human rights, poverty and sustainable development.