Human Rights Pedagogy for Empowering the Agency of Students: An Assessment of IHRIP through the Capabilities Approach Framework

The paradigm of the ‘capabilities approach’ to human development has been analysed extensively in the last thirty years within academia. This workshop explores the potential of the capabilities approach informed pedagogy in the context of experiential legal education. In assessing the experience of McGill Faculty of Law’s International Human Rights Internship Program and its companion course Critical Engagements with Human Rights, the speaker posits that  the capabilities approach to teaching and learning about human rights, in the context of legal education, empowers future jurists and enables them to engage with global human rights in an ethical and professional manner.

Professor Nandini Ramanujam is the Co-Director and Director of Programs of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill University’s Faculty of Law. She also directs the International Human Rights Internship Program as well as Independent Human Rights Internships Program.