Master Program in Democracy and Human Rights
The program in Democracy and Human Rights at Birzeit University was established in 1999, for the purposes of training, education, and capacity building in the field of democracy and human rights. The program encompasses three major components. It includes a training program in democracy and human rights leading to the MA degree. It encompasses a community outreach component, which involves workshops for activists, feedback from practitioners to staff, training for workers in the fields of democracy and human rights. It also embodies a research component that has a focus on studying the practical issues of democracy and human rights in the Arab Palestinian context. The program also embodies a well-equipped resource center; this involves a computer lab for IT training, Internet and email access, and a specialized library with books, documents, database and audiovisual material. These components work together in an integral approach so as to achieve the overall objectives.
The program with each of its components is designed to be a qualitative addition in a field that is interactive and interdisciplinary, politically and socially vital to the process of democratic state building in Palestine .For more information about the program, please click here.
Purpose and Aims
The general objectives of this program can be summarized in filling a gap in Palestinian societal needs for a more professional and more qualified approach to the issues of democracy and human rights. The program is seeking to approach these issues with special emphasis on their applications in the contemporary Palestinian reality without taking them out of their general theoretical framework. Specific objectives are:
- To qualify the MA students to work in the fields of democracy and human rights
- To locate practical issues that need theoretical discussion, and discussing them in an informal atmosphere where theoreticians and practitioners work together
- To suggest local training materials for democracy and human rights education in Palestine
- To offer options of new innovative approaches to practitioners of human rights and democratization advocacy
- To suggest action plans and policies based on research in topics that will be defined through community outreach activities
- To present its findings to those who are involved in advocacy, lobbying, and influencing policies and legislation
Admission Requirements
To be admitted to the Program, applicants are required to:
1. Have the field of specialization (at the undergraduate level) in any of the Social Sciences, or Law; it is possible also to admit applicants from other fields. The admission committee will decide whether the applicant is required to take pre-requisites, which, however, should not exceed an equivalent of 15 hours and would not be included among the credit hours required to obtain the academic degree.
2. Come for a personal interview if the Program Committee would see it necessary.
Program Requirements
Students are required to complete not less than 36 credit hours according to the following plan:
a. Core Courses:
Group I: Required courses (completion of 6 credit hours)
DMHR631 Democracy in Theory and Practice
DMHR632 International Human Rights Law
DMHR633 Democracy and Social Justice
Group II: Courses in Democracy (Completion of at least 3 credit hours)
DMHR634 Theories of Transition to Democracy
DMHR635 History of Democracy
Group III: (Completion of at least 3 credit hours)
DMHR636 Theories of Human Rights
DMHR637 Human Rights in Practice
b. Elective Courses (completion of at least 18 credit hours)
DMHR630 Political Theories
DMHR638 Democracy and Political Culture
DMHR639 Research Methodologies
DMHR730 Democracy in Modern Arab Thought
DMHR731 Democracy in the Modern Islamic Thought
DMHR732 Critiques of Democracy
DMHR733 Civil Society
DMHR734 Education for Democracy and Human Rights
DMHR735 Teaching Democracy and Human Rights
DMHR736 Issues of Democracy and Human Rights in Arab Countries
DMHR737 Human Rights and Current Law in Palestine
DMHR738 Democracy and Development
DMHR739 Special Topic
Students may choose to take two elective courses from other Graduate Programs in exchange of two of the above electives; they may also exchange one of the Program elective courses with an undergraduate course (at a 400 level or higher) from any undergraduate program; in this case not more than one course may be exchanged. In all cases, courses taken from outside the Program may not exceed two, and completing these courses should not serve other purposes. The Program Committee decides the eligibility of the courses that students can take from other programs to substitute for the elective courses offered by the Program. It is also possible for students to take two courses from Group II and /or Group III to replace two courses from Group IV on condition that the selected course has not been already counted in Groups II and III.
c. Research Components Students are required to choose between the following two tracks, after they complete not less than 12 credit hours of the requirements for graduation.
1. Track A ( Thesis DMHR860 )
2. Track B ( DMHR830 and DMHR831 )
The Program Council will take a decision concerning this matter taking into consideration the applicants’ abilities and the Program’s capacity for each track.
