• Welcome to HRLC
• About HRLC
• News
• Events
• Projects
• Publications
• Short Courses and Training
  • Bespoke Training and Capacity Building
  • Chevening Fellowship Course
    • Course Content
    • Participants
    • Speakers
    • Alumni
  • International Human Rights Short Course
  • Summer School
  • Criminal Justice and Human Rights Short Course
  • Short Course on the Law of Armed Conflict
  • International Human Rights Law Distance Learning Course
• Student Activities

Chevening Fellows Course

 

Since 2005, the Human Rights Law Centre has hosted the prestigious annual UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Chevening Fellowship course on Implementing Human Rights Conventions, one of a number of tailor-made courses funded by the FCO as part of its flagship professional development and capacity building scheme. The FCO selects and funds a small group of mid-career professionals from all over the world to study on this 3-month intensive course. Participants, who include senior law enforcement officials, prosecutors, lawyers, judges, foreign and home affairs officials, ombudspersons and human rights commission officials and NGO personnel, are given excellent professional development opportunities and unique learning experiences on a course which draws upon the expertise of leading academics and practitioners in the field of human rights.

 

Chevening Fellow applications are made directly to the British Embassy/British High Commission. For all application queries, or for more information about the Chevening Fellowships and Scholarships Programme, please visit the dedicated Chevening website.

Course Objectives

The course is designed to further the FCO’s Strategic Framework policy goal to ‘Develop Effective International Institutions (above all the UN and EU)’. Its key objective is to provide Fellows with an in-depth understanding of international human rights law theory, principles, standards and operation.

The course aims to equip Fellows with:

• Thorough understanding of key human rights instruments – focusing on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant UN and regional human rights conventions.
• Thorough understanding of national implementation of international human rights standards and decisions, including attention to the national identity, religious and cultural specificities of people within state jurisdiction and the distinct roles of government, judiciary, and civil society in implementation.
• Appreciation of a wide range of rights dimensions, including gender and human rights and the rights of vulnerable groups such as children, minorities, indigenous peoples and the disabled.
• Knowledge and skills to participate in the process of human rights national planning and to adopt human rights based approaches to national development processes.
• Knowledge and skills to address a State’s reporting obligations under human rights conventions, using UK government and NGO experience as an example.
• Thorough understanding of international petition systems and of the UN Charter-based procedures and their relevance for national human rights protection.
• Awareness of practice within the UK for the promotion and protection of human rights, with particular regard to the role of the judiciary and legal practitioners in developing national human rights law.