Human rights are codified laws that government is obligated to provide and protect. The study of Human Rights is about training individuals in law concerning the broader field of rights in Canada and around the world.

For human rights to be codified into law, there’s often a period of time where the fight for those rights take place—this is through activism. We take an in-depth look at specific issue areas where that fight is still ongoing.

DISCOVERING HUMAN RIGHTS
The Human Rights Program at St. Thomas is one of the few such programs in all of Canada, and the only one in Atlantic Canada, that allows undergraduate students to obtain an Honours or Major in the academic study of Human Rights. In this program, you study Human Rights in a national and international context and do individualized research projects on specific topics in your upper years of study.

The program provides knowledge of the philosophy, legal instruments, and political institutions that are the foundation for an education in Human Rights.

YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN STUDYING HUMAN RIGHTS IF...
• You want to go to law school, pursue a career in social work or law enforcement
• You are interested in being an activist in your community pursuing social justice at the grass roots level

CRITICAL AND TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
As a student of Human Rights, you will develop advanced skills in critical analysis. You will be able to identify issues and have the capacity to work toward meaningful, reasonable solutions. Human Rights students are driven by a passion to understand and fight for necessary changes that make significant differences to individuals and whole societies.

They are able to see how decisions, events, and other actions affect people. They acquire the ability to navigate through legal and political realities to create a better world.

Graduates from the Human Rights Program move on to many areas of work and further study. Depending on the combination of programs, graduates often find themselves pursuing careers in journalism, humanitarian work, law, social work, politics, education, policing, and more.