Human rights issues are everywhere. Studying human rights provides you with the knowledge and skills to understand how human rights impact and are impacted by virtually every discipline.
A minor in Human Rights is a secondary area of concentration in a subject different from your honours program. Students enrolled in any degree program may pursue this minor program.
Students interested in pursuing a minor in Human Rights need to complete a Plan Modification Form and submit it to Professor Anna Purkey, Program Director for approval. In order to be eligible to declare it, you must have at least 0.5 units (1 course) completed from the curriculum list with a 65% average or above. You can declare your minor starting in your second year.
To fulfill the minor, students must complete a minimum of four academic course units (eight courses) with a minimum cumulative average of 65% in accordance with the below curriculum.
If you are interested in Human Rights and Law, click here to learn more about our Double Degree program.
Required Courses
Electives
Human Rights Professors
Anna Purkey
Dr. Anna Purkey is a lawyer and human rights scholar with a focus on refugee and forced migration studies. She received her Doctorate in Law from McGill University, and is a member of the Quebec Bar Association and the executive of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS). She has previously held the position of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice (Canada) and has worked as an external consultant for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
Dr. Purkey’s research focuses on international and Canadian refugee law and policy, with a special emphasis on protracted refugee situations and themes of human rights, human capability, and legal empowerment. Recent and current projects center on the concept of vulnerability in the Canadian refugee system, and the treatment of marginalized groups including refugee children and older refugees.
Julie Kate Seirlis
Julia (Julie Kate) Seirlis holds a BA in English, French, Italian, Latin and Private Law from the University of Cape Town and an MSt and DPhil in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oxford. Her doctorate examined the relationships between race and space in the construction -- and alienation -- of Coloured ("mixed race") identities in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe.
Nancy Tapias Torrado
Nancy R. Tapias Torrado is a doctor in sociology (University of Oxford) and human rights lawyer (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana-PUJ). She also holds master’s degrees in international human rights law (University of Essex), philosophy (PUJ) and education (University of Barcelona). For over two decades, Dr. Tapias Torrado has been dedicated to working with and for human rights defenders at risk and some of the most vulnerable persons and communities, mainly in Latin America. Dr. Tapias Torrado is a former Law Professor at PUJ and a former Amnesty International’s Americas Regional Researcher (International Secretariat, London, UK). She is the 2023-24 Barry Pashak Postdoctoral Fellow of Concordia University’s Social Justice Centre and a former Postdoctoral Fellow at the UQAM. Dr. Tapias Torrado has consulted for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and several non-governmental organizations, including OXFAM, CEJIL and PBI. She is a member of the Advisory Council on Restorative Justice for the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in Colombia. She has also done extensive pro bono work with and for Colombian refugees, mainly women human rights defenders in exile.