Religions, Law and Human Rights - Period 1 Social Sciences & Humanities Program Fall 2021 Semester - Amsterdam

This module on focuses on Religion and Human Rights. During the minor we will be discussing human rights issues, such as the rights of women, freedom of expression and the rights of minorities from the perspective
of the belief systems which are numerically most important, i.e. Christianity, Islam and Liberalism. The founding document of the international human rights system, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (hereafter: UDHR), is widely perceived to be an ode to Liberalism, which emphasises the importance of values such as autonomy, individualism, rationality. Consequently, Christian and Islamic scholars usually do not regard themselves as owners of this founding document.

However, the founding fathers intended the UDHR to be a 'big tent' which should represent all worldviews, religions, and philosophies, including Christianity and Islam. By keeping their distance to the UDHR, Christian
and Islamic experts leave the territory to the Liberals, which increasingly view the UDHR as their own. Underlying this minor is the idea that Christianity and Islam should play a more important part in the human rights debate, because they have a lot to offer to it. The contributions they could make will be discussed during the sessions.

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.