The Center of Human Rights at the University of Essex calls applications for the Essex Summer Human Rights School 2020 in the United Kingdom. Moreover, the program runs from 6 – 10 July 2020 which aims to cover the Human Rights Research Methods.  Basically, the program covers a range of qualitative and quantitative methods in human rights research that are essential for human rights professionals, researchers and postgraduate students. In addition to that, the participants will have an opportunity to learn about human rights advocacy from both international and Essex-based experts.

Teaching Program

The Essex Human Rights Summer School 2020 covers the discussion and teaching programs in the following topics

• Overview of Research Methods
• Measuring Human Rights: Reliance on Indicators
• Role of Databases
• Socio-Economic Statistics and Administrative Statistics
• Types of Indicators: Survey – and Standards-Based Measures
• Big Data Methods for Monitoring Implementation
• Overview of Qualitative Techniques and Data Practices
• Qualitative Analysis
• Single Case Study
• Comparative Case Studies
• In-Country Research
• Interviewing Survivors of Torture
• Focus Groups
• Use of Open Source Data
• Experiments

Who can apply?

The Essex Human Rights Summer School is open to all postgraduate students, academics, lawyers and human rights professionals working in NGOs, government as well as international organizations.

Learning Outcomes 

At the end of the program, the participant candidates will

• Acquire a strong understanding of the key methods used in human rights research and the way in which they can be used on their own or in combination (mixed methods).
• Learn to design research projects with a strong methodology, including for grant applications and also to have an optimal impact on policy and practice.
• Also, attain a strong understanding of how to ensure that the research meets ethical standards including in NGOs without ethics committees.
• Gain a strong appreciation of qualitative interviewing techniques including issues involved with interviewing victims and affected communities and carrying out research on sensitive human rights topics.
• Have an idea of how to interpret data gained through interviews. Similarly, they become ‘literate’ in carrying out quantitative research and collecting, processing and using data.
• Understand how to do research in different countries and research in closed and challenging societies. S
• Similarly, understand how to measure the impact of policies and practices based on human rights.
• Learn how to design and carry out comparative country research as well as learn about emerging methods such as experiments and the use of social media.
• Furthermore, learn about advocacy strategies from expert practitioners.

University of Essex

The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. It was named as University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards in November 2018. Essex’s motto, “Thought the harder, heart the keener”, is adapted from the Anglo-Saxon poem The Battle of Maldon. In addition to that, Essex is one of eight young universities that are part of the Young Universities for the Future of Europe alliance, which was selected by the European Commission to create one of the first European Universities, cross-border alliances of higher education institutions created to promote staff and student mobility. Essex is also a founding partner of the Young European Research Universities network.