HUMAN RIGHTS OF VULNERABLE GROUPS

The protection of vulnerable persons has become one of the major issues in international and national human rights agendas. And states and other actors have increasingly been subjected to international supervision mechanisms particularly in relation to the available legal, institutional and other measures concerned with the protection and enforcement of the rights of vulnerable groups. The course, therefore, mainly aims to introduce the students with this contemporary trend and the development of the international legal norms in this respect. So having first considered the contested notion of vulnerability and its relevance in the current academic/theoretical, political and policy debates and locating the same within the general debates of human rights, the course will engage the students with such themes as the rights of women, children, minority groups, persons with disabilities, refugees and internally displaced persons, migrant workers, and indigenous and tribal peoples and communities under international law. As such the course will pay particular attention to the justification(s) for the need for special protection of vulnerable persons, the contents of their substantive rights and corresponding States party obligations as established in different international instruments and human rights jurisprudence. In each theme, the course will also assess the respective normative, institutional and policy frameworks being in place in Ethiopia. The following will be the focal point of the course:-

Course Objective:

After successful completion of this course students will able to:

·         Determine who are vulnerable groups

·         Justify the need to provide special protection to vulnerable groups

·         Policy and legal framework at the international, regional and national level for the protection of vulnerable groups

·         Identify major gaps in the protection of vulnerable groups

Course Content

The following topics will be the focal point of the course:-

• The Notion of Vulnerability and Vulnerable Persons
• The rationale for the Special Protection of Vulnerable Persons
• Children
•  Women
•  Persons with Disabilities
• ·Minority Groups
•  Indigenous and Tribal Communities/Peoples 
•  Stateless persons / Non-Citizen Rights
•  LGBT Rights
•  Refugees, 

• Internally Displaced Persons 
•  Migrant Workers

• The Rights of Persons deprived of their Liberty

•   National Level Legal Remedies and mechanisms in the protection of Vulnerable People

Method of delivery: Lecture, discussion and presentation

Evaluation: Term papers, article review, presentation and final examination

Reference Materials:

1.       “Vulnerable groups ; the promise of an emerging ceoncept in European human rights convention law” International Journal of Constitutional Law, Vol 11, Issue 4,  ( 2013)

2.        K.M.Smith ,International Human Rights , ,7^th ed.(2014) oxford university

3.       H. E. Morawa, Alexander “'Vulnerability' as a Concept in International Human Rights Law” Journal of International Relations and Development, Vol. 10, (2003)  

4.       A.R. Chapman, Benjamin Carbonetti “Human Rights Protections for Vulnerable and Disadvantaged  Groups:” The Contributions of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Human Rights Quarterly, Vol 33, No 3, (2011)

5.  Prem Sam Ponniah.V. “Human rights of Indigenous People in India- The Case of Irula Tribe” LAP Lambert Academic Publication, 2020. (353 pages)  ISBN: 978-620-2-51501-6